Judge — June 18, 1898 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a humorous eight-panel comic strip satirizing war correspondents or "war-artists" during what appears to be the Spanish-American War (1898). Two men discover a Spanish fort and devise an absurd plan: they paint soldiers on a board and use it as a decoy to trick the Spanish into surrendering. The joke mocks both the bravery claims of war reporters and the supposed incompetence of Spanish forces. Through increasingly ridiculous escalations—from the initial sighting to a fake regiment to an actual military charge—the comic exaggerates how easily the fort supposedly falls. The final panel celebrates this mock-heroic victory, suggesting war-artists received disproportionate credit for military successes. It's satirical commentary on sensationalized war reporting.