Judge, 1918-09-07 · page 11 of 32
Judge — September 7, 1918 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "What Every Cartoonist Knows" — Judge Magazine This is a satirical essay by Orson Lowell mocking the visual clichés cartoonists relied upon to instantly communicate character types to readers. It's meta-humor about cartooning conventions themselves. Lowell catalogs tired stereotypes: farmers always have hay in their mouths; politicians wear large-checked suits and are fat; Russians have enormous beards; Frenchmen wear narrow upturned mustaches; suffragists are large and masterful; nurses exist only for romance subplot purposes. The piece continues through dozens of such visual shorthand devices. The accompanying cartoons illustrate this mockery. "Baby's First Words" shows a domestic scene where a child's first utterance is movie-related slang, satirizing how cartoonists depicted modern urban culture. For modern readers: this reveals how heavily pre-film-era cartooning depended on visual stereotypes and stock characters—the audience needed instant visual recognition since there was no dialogue. The satire exposes how lazy and formulaic these conventions had become by this magazine's era.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
What Every Cartoonist Knows By Oxson Lowett HAT all farmers, awake or asleep, have a wisp I of hay in the mouth, even though they may be sand-seeing in the Sahara. That theatrical managers always do business with their feet on their desks, and wear unlimited diamonds. That ministers of the Gospel, of whatever denomi- nation, are lean, smooth-shaven, and toe in. Only bishops may be fat. That musicians must be bushy, Their hair may be straight, but it must be abundant. That artists have curly hair. That all politicians wear suits of large-checked pattern and should be fat. However, fat or lean, the neck should roll over the collar in the back. That both a burglar and his accomplice have al- ways one week's growth of beard no matter how often they shave. hat bathing-dresses are to be drawn shorter. That trained nurses and stenographers are present ‘only for purposes of love-making That suffragists must wear ground-grippers, be of large proportions and masterful demeanor. That their husbands are always weak shrimps wearing collars of size 12'4. (If two are shown in one picture, one must have Burnsides.) That all Russians have enormous full beards That Englishmen have chop whiskers. That Frenchmen wear narrow, dark mustaches, turned up. That Germans have big blond mustaches, turned down. All except the nobility, if you get what we don’t mean. coe ee That Italians, though their mustaches resemble wc nnythink . eee Oh, no the French, may be distinguished by the small dab down to me hip pocket and find o just under the lower lip. cone out.” That all bare-footed boys in all circumstances, even at evening parties or court-functions, should That political cartoons are to be distinguished as such have at least one toe bandaged. by the dome of the capitol showing in the background. That country peo- ple always carry va- lises with half a collar protruding. That a boot-jack is the only thing to throw at a sleep-dis- pelling tom-cat, which must always sing di- rectly in front of a super-harvest moon. . for ya, Bill ctly comfort Unlucky Friend—Did the Ger- mans open their drive at an unlucky time for you? Returned Soldier —1 should say so. There I sat with four aces cold and somebody just open- ing the biggest pot of Drown by Cavan Sutra the evening when slam- bang, in they comes. comicbooks.com