Judge — July 10, 1926 — page 35: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents **Contest No. 50**, a reader participation feature where Judge magazine invited amateur cartoonists to complete comic strip endings for a $25 prize. The three incomplete strips show comedic scenarios involving cartoon characters in physical predicaments—apparently slapstick situations involving water, boats, and collapsing structures. The exact narrative context is unclear from the fragmented panels alone. Judge's editorial policy explicitly barred professional artists, democratizing cartooning by inviting ordinary readers to compete based on "originality of idea, humor, and cleverness." This reflects early 20th-century magazine culture, where reader engagement contests were popular circulation boosters. The prize amount ($25) would have been meaningful during this era. The contest deadline was July 19, with the winning entry published August 7—suggesting this was from a 1920s-era issue, though the exact date isn't specified on this page.