The Wasp — 1893 — page 304: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical piece mocks "Commissioner Blount's extraordinary discoveries in the Cannibal Islands" (likely referring to a real colonial administrator). The comic presents a fake "before and after" narrative: **Top panels** show supposed "primitive" island life: natives in boats, people on shore. **Bottom panel** depicts the "progress" of colonialism: indigenous people now wear Western clothes, hold signs advertising Hazel Kirke cigars and soda, and display other commercial products. Street lamps and "modern improvements" replace natural landscape. The satire suggests colonialism merely replaces authentic culture with commercial exploitation and Western consumerism. The "Commissioner" arrives claiming to bring civilization, but actually imposes advertising and commercialism on indigenous populations—a pointed critique of colonial "progress" narratives that masked economic extraction.