Judge, 1897-05-22 · page 16 of 16
Judge — May 22, 1897 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a four-panel comic strip satirizing fishing methods. The narrative follows two characters—"Hungry Hat" and "Harry Stocum"—attempting to catch fish using an unconventional lure: crumbs trapped in one character's whiskers. The humor derives from the absurdist premise: instead of proper fishing equipment, they're using facial hair as bait. Panel 1 shows their desperate hunger; Panel 2 presents the ridiculous "plan"; Panel 3 celebrates its apparent success ("We've got 'em"); Panel 4 praises the inventor's ingenuity. The "fish-story" title likely references the exaggerated tall tales fishermen traditionally tell. The comic mocks both fishing culture and desperation—the characters are so hungry they resort to ludicrous improvisation. The crude dialect suggests working-class or immigrant characters, typical of Judge magazine's humor from this era (1897).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
comicbooks.com ways about it, we'se starvin’ 2 Hunory Hat—" Patience, pard. Der crumbs in dem whiskers is bound ter draw ‘em. Say when yer ready.” 3. 4 ** Hooray! We've got ‘em.” _Hatry Stocum (af the fry}—"* Say, Hal; you're a peach fer Commany 1897,87 THE JUDGE PUBLISKING COMPANY OF EW YORK hevin’ ideas. Sackatt 8 Wihelms tho Co New York A FISH-STORY BY “ZIM.”