Life, 1919-06-12 · page 17 of 46
Life — June 12, 1919 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous narrative comic about a Wild West film production. A narrator (appearing to be a frontier character) describes filming a movie featuring "Broncho Bill." The story follows a chaotic shoot: during an early morning scene with few onlookers, a "blond duchess" permits the narrator to bring dogs into a shot of a camp. The dogs, however, become distracted by a "fat piano-player," disrupting the scene. Later, an "Injun" (Native American character) is filmed "creepin' up" on a woman, but the dogs again cause mayhem. The final panels show the judge-like director struggling to control the situation. The satire mocks early cinema's Wild West genre—its melodramatic plots, unprofessional productions, and general chaos. The dogs represent uncontrollable real-world elements that undermine carefully planned narratives, a common source of comedy in slapstick-era filmmaking humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
itt, They took a lively interest in the picture. but displayed a leetle arch zeal over some dogs that was trail ler the wagons. Jt hein’ early an’ not many present, this blond duchess permitted me to take in them dogs, Paddy) went over the showed the party camped fur the i the fat piano-player night, an” Injun creepin® up on a purty leetle yal. "Of course all bets was off then! os : wind-up? Well, the judge member, seein’ a_ bluce Jchearted enought to let them whis'lin’ stunt with a dog tyes share my thirty to either Iaig. A MOVIE TRAGEDY Broncho Bill, Two Dogs and a Wild West Film comicbooks.com