Life, 1923-05-24 · page 11 of 42
Life — May 24, 1923 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a comic strip featuring a young character named Skippy in a woods setting. The humor centers on boys' adventurous fantasies and their bravado about violence and danger. The strip progresses through six panels showing Skippy with a six-shooter, imagining increasingly dramatic scenarios: starting a fight, filling enemies with lead, using kerosene and matches, and finally threatening to blow up the entire woods while drunk on imagined power. The satire targets childhood male aggression and the violent fantasies boys indulge in through popular Western and adventure media. The contrast between Skippy's small, harmless appearance and his bloodthirsty rhetoric creates comedic irony, while subtly critiquing how entertainment encouraged violent thinking in children. The exaggerated declarations mock both boyish braggadocio and the glorification of violence in popular culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“T've got my father’s great big six-shooter with me ‘n’ if anybody in this woods wants to start some- thin’ just let °em—but they DASSN’T.” “There’s been a lot of people missin’ around here, but nobody knows who soaked ’em in kerosene oil ’n’ touched a match to ’em.” Skippy “T'll fill "em full of lead ’n’ if that don’t kill °em TIl take a great big rope ’n’ tie em on our choppin’ block ’n’ cut ’em up in little pieces. I'M SO TOUGH I COULD DRINK BLOOD!” “Just let me get roused up ’n’ ’'LL BLOW UP THIS WHOLE WOODS!” No. 10 comicbooks.com