Judge, 1927-03-05 · page 17 of 34
Judge — March 5, 1927 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Judge magazine comic satirizes a young woman who adopts an extreme "natural beauty" philosophy, rejecting cosmetics, cigarettes, and alcohol. Nancy embraces vigorous exercise, nature communion, and philosophical living as alternatives to artificial enhancement. The satire's target: Nancy's naive absolutism. While promoting "natural" living, she becomes obsessively disciplined—doing dumbbells compulsively, consulting with beauty experts who now follow *her* philosophy. The final panel suggests ironic comeuppance: she proudly points out "the creature just entering the lobby" as an example of artificiality's curse, implying her preaching has become as insufferable and judgmental as the vanity she rejected. The joke critiques both extremes—excessive artificiality *and* preachy naturalism—mocking Nancy's self-righteous hypocrisy: she's simply replaced one form of vanity with another.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE NAIVE NANCY Nancy decides that artificial beauty is all wrong. “Be natural and healthy.” She throws away all her drinks and smokes and all her cosmetics. “Develop natural charm,” she explains as she goes through her vigorous daily régime at the gym. “Dumb- bells are the thing.” Each day she communes with nature. She feeds the squirrels in the park, for “Pretty is as pretty does,” she declares philosophically. News travels! Beauty experts consult her. “Yes, arti- ficiality is the curse of today,” she tells them. “If you will notice the creature just entering the lobby, you will 17 comicbooks.com