A complete, restored issue of Judge from 1888-01-07 — all 16 pages of color political cartoons and topical humor, free to page through at comicbooks.com.

On the cover: # "Leap Year Again" - Judge Magazine, January 7, 1888 This cartoon satirizes the tradition of "Leap Year" when women could propose to men. The caption identifies the female figure as "Bella Butter (a giddy thing)" approaching a well-dressed man with her fan raised, saying: "Be still, my poor fluttering little heart! I must Pop the Question again—This is my last chance!" The joke plays on Victorian gender conventions—women were supposed to be passive and wait for male proposals. The cartoon mocks both the absurdity of role-reversal and the desperation suggested by "my last chance," implying an aging woman's urgency to marry before it's too late. The man's anxious posture contrasts with her aggressive courtship, emphasizing the comedic violation of social propriety that Leap Year permitted.

🖼️ Every page has a plain-English note on what you’re looking at — the figures, the references, the point of the satire.

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