Obscurity of the Day: The Merry Nobles Three - They Never Can Agree

Which country is the best -- Germany, England, France, or the United States? Given that we're looking at a strip published in the Philadelphia Press, I'm betting you can guess Kahles' answer to the question even before you've read the samples above.

Charles Kahles penned the amazingly repetitive series The Merry Nobles Three -- They  Never Can Agree for the Press as a Sunday feature from February 11 to December 23 1906 with nary a variance from the formula seen in our samples above. Kahles must have practically penned these in his sleep because in addition to their regular appearances in the Sunday section the strip also popped up in occasional daily issues of the paper (first on April 5 1906, last on September 4). Though the gags are on auto-pilot, we can still enjoy Kahles' beautiful linework. The art is especially detailed on this strip because it almost always ran on an inside page of the Press' Sunday section with no color. The Press at this time didn't use spot color on their interior pages but just printed the whole thing in a single color, usually a dark brown, green or red.

Much thanks to Our Man in Philly, Cole Johnson, for the scans!