Saturday, January 13, 2024
One-Shot Wonders: Everything Has Its Use by C.M. Payne, New York Journal, 1897
Here's an early strip by Charlie Payne, who later found long-lasting success with his strip S'Matter, Pop. Given that we have three incompatible elements here -- Chinese characters and a tropical bird in an Arctic landscape, I can't decide whether Payne is incredibly naive of geography, or if that is supposed to be part of the gag. Gotta love the beautiful lettering work on that title, though!
Thsi gag appeared in the New York Journal's comic section of March 28 1897.
Labels: One-Shot Wonders
Comments:
Allow me to make a guess; Payne probably saw the similarity in the shape of a Toucan's bill and the blades used in ice-skimming craft, and had to make a cartoon from it, no matter how lame. (After all, 1890s cause-and-effect gags are all on this level)
My take on the Arcticallity and the Chinamen are not born of naiveity of place, obviously everyone knows Toucs are seen only close to the Equator, so that's just part of the disregard for logic that's part of such gags, but I think Payne probably had no idea what Esquimoux looked like, so Chinese was close enough for him.
Nice to see Payne working the big time so early on.
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My take on the Arcticallity and the Chinamen are not born of naiveity of place, obviously everyone knows Toucs are seen only close to the Equator, so that's just part of the disregard for logic that's part of such gags, but I think Payne probably had no idea what Esquimoux looked like, so Chinese was close enough for him.
Nice to see Payne working the big time so early on.
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: 1/13/2024 1:00 PM
: 1/13/2024 1:00 PM 