The Wasp — 1896 — page 343: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This six-panel comic strip follows a character named Bilkins through various bicycle-related misadventures. The humor targets the cycling craze and associated social pretensions of the era (likely late 1800s, when bicycling was fashionable). The panels depict: (I) Bilkins riding confidently while a dog accompanies him; (II) a collision or near-miss with a woman; (III) Bilkins entering a building; (IV) another collision involving a woman with a wrenched ear; (V) Bilkins and a woman falling; (VI) Bilkins facing a policeman, apparently arrested. The satire mocks both careless cyclists endangering pedestrians and the popular cycling culture itself. The repeated female figures suggest commentary on how women cyclists were viewed and treated in Victorian society—as obstacles or subjects of ridicule rather than legitimate road users.