Life, 1888-07-12 · page 11 of 14
Life — July 12, 1888 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Comic Strip Analysis This is a humorous sequential narrative about "Mr. E." (likely representing an urban easterner or tenderfoot), who attempts cowboy life but abandons it after suffering a series of comedic misadventures. The strip satirizes the romantic fantasy of the Old West versus its harsh reality. The joke progresses through escalating disasters: stolen boots, shrunk buckskin clothes, bucking horses, being mistaken for a horse thief, difficult cattle herding, and stampedes. Each panel depicts genuine frontier hardships presented as slapstick comedy. The satire targets city dwellers who idealize cowboy culture without understanding its actual dangers and discomforts. Mr. E's rapid return to urban life—after concluding the cowboy life has "inconveniences"—is the punchline, using dramatic understatement to mock his naive romanticism about the frontier.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
First night out coyote steals one of his boots, Cook makes it pleasant for him, Daylight finds him lost. Pony steps in prairiedog hole, throws him, and gets away. After the rain his nice new buckskin shrinks in drying and he is not com- fortable. — A night herder is sick and Mr. E. is allowed to go in his place. Pony proves to be a bucker. While looking for a trail he is roped by some horse-thief hunters, Three days hard riding to the camp. Mr. E. isn't used to it. Begins to wish he hadn't. Gets another pony and goes with the cattle, Itstorms. Cattle stampede, and he is sorry he came. One of the boys comes up just in time, Mr. E. concludes that the cowboy’s life has its inconvenienses and returns to the city. comicbooks.com