Life, 1926-10-21 · page 32 of 44
Life — October 21, 1926 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical comic by French artist Marcel Caby mocks an obsessive huntsman whose violent rhetoric spirals absurdly. The character boasts of killing exotic animals (cockatoos, monkeys, woodlouse) and claims superhuman tracking abilities, but his language becomes increasingly bloodthirsty and unhinged—culminating in demands for "nothing but gore." The joke appears to satirize extreme hunting culture or possibly a specific contemporary figure known for excessive hunting rhetoric. The final panel undercuts his grandiose claims: his wife reveals he's terrified of plucking chickens and demands her blood-thirsty fantasies while avoiding actual gore. The epigraph "Aut Scissors aut Nullus" (roughly "scissors or nothing") suggests editorial mockery of French attitudes. This likely references early-20th-century European debates over hunting, militarism, or masculine posturing, though the specific political target remains unclear without additional context.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Our Foolish yfiifr<Contemporaries “Aut Scissors aut Nullus” The Temperament of a Huntsman “1 CAN KNOCK OVER A 1 NUNT THE GIANT wooptoi ON THE BARE COCKATOO, THE sporTny BANDICOOT AND THE WiLp MASKED MONKEY! CREEP UP ON MY PREY, I LEAP, 1 CRAWL, 1 STRANGLE iT! “AS A TRACKER 1AM LEAST THREE MEN! “YM ALWAYS ON TIE LOOKOUT, SUMMER AS WELL AS WINTER! 1 CAN DIS: IYSELP TO Tixouisit THE AT TRACES OF THE MALE FROM THE A GUN IN MY pyre 1 FEEL bE TWO MEN! “wittt HAND, “| must KILL, 1 MUST DEMOLISH! “| WOULD FoLLow IT TO THE TOP OF THE DOME oF THE INVALIDES! “TROM SEPTEMBER ON, 1 KNIT MY BROWS... “{ DISCLOSE THE SOUL OF AN apace! “| KILL EVERYTIIN Moves! LET A STIR—IT'S A GONER!! The Huntsman’s Wife: core—inpeeD!! anp you TURNING YOUR HEAD AWAY EVERY TIME 1 PLUCK A CHICKEN II! “’m THsty ror core! I COULD DRINK BOWLS OP core I!!!" “| MUST ExTERMINATE! 1 MUsT ExEcUTE! HAVE GorE! NoTHING aut GORE! —Marcel Capy, in Le Journal (Paris). comicbooks.com