Life, 1918-08-01 · page 32 of 36
Life — August 1, 1918 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical cartoon and letter from *Life* magazine (August 1918), during World War I's final months. **The Cartoon:** Two civilians on a dock signal to a battleship using a copy of *Life* magazine. The joke: they're announcing the magazine's arrival as if it's major news worthy of military signaling—poking fun at the magazine's self-importance. **"A Letter from the Rear":** The editors humorously address soldiers at the front, claiming to be stuck "at home" reading submitted jokes while longing for combat news. They're exhausted hearing about "the Kaiser and his crew," express readiness for anything to "win this war," and cheekily offer to deliver *Life* copies to "Fritz" (slang for German soldiers) if the troops will reciprocate. **The Point:** Self-deprecating wartime humor. The magazine presents itself as desperate to contribute to the war effort while acknowledging its actual limitation—providing morale-boosting entertainment rather than military action. It's also a subscription pitch disguised as patriotic appeal.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Special Offer N nS Enclosed ‘ find one Dol: lar (Canadian N $1.13, Foreign $1.26). Send Lirc for three months to Open only to new subscribers; no subscriptions renev + LIFE, 17 West 31st Street, New York. One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52; Foreign, $6.04.) ‘N receipt of ten cents. N. ‘*Now, what do you sup- pose he is signalling to his chum?”’ “He's telling him he has just received the latest copy of LIFE.”’ A Letter from the Rear Lire Trenches, August, 1918. FELLows: We are trying to be as cheerful as possible, considering that we have to stay at home and read all the jokes that come in. We are horribly lone- some, especially for news from the front, so any little thing you have, no matter how trivial, don’t hesitate to send it along. And, above all, don’t write us any gloomy stuff. It’s bad enough try- ing to keep it all out of the paper. We are so sick of the Kaiser and his crew, just from reading about him in our mail, that we hope you'll get into Berlin as soon as you can, conveniently. We hope to get out a Humorous Number soon, and hope you won't mind. We are ready to do almost anything to win this war. You might send us a subscription, just to cheer us up, but we don’t insist upon it. Our circulation is keeping up fairly well, although our pulse is too much above normal—especially when we read what you fellows are doirg “ over there.” 4 Pass one out to Fritz for us, will you? We'll do the same by you | some day. | I Ever yours, | |p y Ze | * i} N Several sample copies will | 3 N be sent to any address on | ' 1 comicbooks.com