Judge — July 9, 1921 — page 18: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a nine-panel comic strip depicting a moral allegory where Good triumphs over Evil through various slapstick consequences. Panel 1 shows Evil (top hat) and Good (lighter clothing) as opposing forces. Subsequent panels show Evil repeatedly suffering mishaps—getting hit ("OOMP"), struck ("OOF"), clubbed ("GLUB"), and finally trapped in a barrel with explosives ("ZAM" and "POW")—while Good remains unharmed or victorious. The strip's subtitle declares it a "short history of the world, revealing the delayed but inevitable triumph of virtue," suggesting this is satirical commentary on morality and justice. The cartoonist (Ellison Hoover) uses physical comedy to reinforce a simplistic moral narrative popular in early 20th-century American culture—that good inevitably defeats evil, despite temporary setbacks.