This is our twelfth and (I think) final card in the Little Nemo series, published by Raphael Tuck. You know the game … can you identify the Little Nemo strip from which the image was satched? Or, is it an original penned right out of the noggin of the anonymous Tuck’s artist?
The other big question: we’ve published 12 cards here at Stripper’s Guide, and I believe my cupboard is bare. Are there any others that we’ve missed?
Hey, it’s been a long time since we featured one of these Charles Dana Gibson cards from the Detroit Publishing Company. This one is #14045. Mr. Gibson’s perspective on this illustration is suspect, I think. Our fair damsel sure seems like she’s hovering about a foot too high for the shoreline. But maybe she mounded the sand under her bum.
Here’s a card from Tuck’s Buster Brown Valentine Series 8. You’ll note that they don’t even bother to forge Outcault’s signature on this one, so far off model it is. This particular one wasn’t posted, but others in the series in my collection are postmarked 1909.
Let’s not forget it’s leap year! Here’s another Dwig leap year card, Samuel Gabriel & Sons Series 401. Some smartass wrote to poor Miss Frances Estabrook of Houlton Maine on the back of this card, admonishing her that she should “get a hustle on, it may not be too late.” I did a little genealogical searching, and I’ve got bad news for Frances. The manhunt would not go well.
Time to inflict another Cobb Shinn card on you. This one has no maker credit, but was postally used in 1910. In this case Shinn’s art is not bad at all, but he manages to mystify us with the three ring design, the acres of whitespace, and the sand dune scenery. Why, Cobb, why?
Nemo, Impy and Flip wade in the East River, a decidedly unhealthy pursuit, in this card from the Little Nemo series. Can you identify which McCay strip holds the original version of this scene?
Here’s a Reg Manning ‘Travelcard’, this one designated 8-41or 1B-H1561, take your pick. They were called Travelcards because there are fill-in-the-blanks on the reverse for the sender to enter the date and time and where they were at that moment on their journey. Manning’s Travelcards were printed by Curteich out of Chicago, and distributed throughout the southwest by Lollesgard Specialty of Arizona. Since these were published in 1941, you find a lot in unused condition since pleasure trips were about to pretty much go out the window as soon as the US joined the war in December.
Here’s another entry from Carmichael’s 1910 “If” series #262, published by Samson Brothers. I wasn’t sure which way to display this card, since the text and the image are at odds with each other. Isn’t there an old maxim “In a Tie Game, The Toon Wins”?
Well, I looked around for a New Year’s card to feature and came up dry — they do exist, but they aren’t plentiful — so here’s an alternative take to usher in the leap year of 2024. It was once a pseudo-custom that in leap years women were permitted to propose marriage to men. It wasn’t a real thing, frankly, but more of a running cruel gag that leap years offered the less desireable ladies a chance to try to snag themselves a husband.
The Samuel Gabriel & Sons Company offered a whole series of postcards commemorating leap year, titled the Leap Year Series 401, all featuring great cartoons by Dwig. None of my examples have a legible postmark, I’m afraid, but I’d lay a bet that they were issued in 1908, which is right in the middle of the gag postcard craze.
Here’s a literally steamy Valentine’s Day card from the pen of Richard Outcault, part of the phenomenally popular Tuck’s line of offerings. Buster may be about to be in awful trouble, because I’m not sure that’s Mary Jane! Thanks to Mark Johnson who provided the scan.