Obscurity of the Day: Little Rube

James J. Maguinnis produced a lot of material for the Boston Globe, most of it being eminently forgettable. I suppose that his most striking quality was the willingness to flog a simple idea longer than most cartoonists could. Little Rube, however, is so basic a concept that even Maguinnis could not beat it very long at all.

Country bumpkin Little Rube has been visited by the Bright brothers, city boys from Boston. In each strip they treat him badly but he ends up getting the best of them. Since this strip was always a quarter-page size, Maguinnis allotted only four panels for the gag, so to say that the strip kept to the basics is an understatement. Maguinnis gave up on Little Rube after only a handful of episodes, running from June 25 to August 6 1905*.


*Source: Dave Strickler's Boston Globe index.