#historical cartoons

[ladies-home-journey]

The New Yorker, Feb 21, 1925

[yesterdaysprint]

The Decatur Daily Review, Illinois, May 17, 1936

Just jumping around from one party to another...

[clove-pinks]

POV: you are a small boy in 1852 who is being cruelly forced to wear turn-down collars, even though young Sidney Bowler—who's not half so tall as you!—has had stick-ups and white chokers for ever so long.

[empirearchives]

Me: *feels guilty about reading the private love letters of historical figures which can get pretty intimate at times*

Also me:

[hootbon]

feelings on the smiling critters cartoon?

Bro I fucking love it

I swear Amberluvsbugs did a PHENOMENAL job on making it, I literally can’t get over it. RRRR I aspire to be that cool.

They’re literally one of my favorite artists out there of all time, I giggle and kick my legs when I see a new post honest to god. Even better when I see an ANIMATION by them I get giddy.. then rewatch it like 30 times.. I’m not joking I watched the Melanie Martinez contortionist mommy long legs one like 30 something times fawning over the talent they have.

I’m so normal about their work I swear.

[newspecies]

"the vast majority of legal persecution against early queers was focused on men" ARE YOU INSANE

[grickle14]

Life was never the same after that.

[sparky-cryptidcrafts]

I think when your favorite character from a show that's main focus is diversity, acceptance and the experiences of minority groups is the white colonizers that's a red flag.

[oh-westly]

The “Great” War - Comic cover/poster

If you told me I’d be at a point to start making this into a comic, I think I’d call you insane! But I’m on the way for it to be released sometime soon, so hope you guys are just as excited as I am!

[thatrobotkid]

"Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones" Pitch Bible by Greg Miller, circa 1999

[frankidacre]

There’s that one myth about Cornelius Vanderbilt being a major factor in the creation of potato chips…. I couldn’t help but just run with this idea 😭

[your-fave-isdoomedbythenarrative]

these mfers (super science friends)

The Super Science Friends from Super Science Friends are doomed by the narrative and trying to escape.

[yesterdaysprint]

Muncie Evening Press, Indiana, January 21, 1926

[clove-pinks]

I’m obsessed with John Leech’s illustrations of swells and other ridiculous fashionable men. Do you have any sources of images or further information you can point me to?

Do I ever!

I love to recommend the collection of John Leech's cartoons that I have used heavily for @is-the-19thcentury-man-okay: John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character, Volume 1 on Google Books. At this time it looks like the John Leech Archive web site is down. That's really a shame because it was searchable by year and (limited) keywords/subjects. It's still on the Internet Wayback Machine although I'm not sure how much is preserved.

The Victorian writer and entertainer Albert Smith (sadly forgotten today) is another great source for 1840s and 1850s fashions and foibles. I highly recommend The Natural History of the Gent and The Natural History of the Idler Upon Town.

For fashion history references to go with the cartoons, you can't go wrong with A History of Men's Fashion by Farid Chenoune, and the classic Handbook of English Costume in the 19th Century by Phillis Cunnington and C. Willett Cunnington.

Thanks for the question, this subject is dear to my heart.

[banyanas]

Okay there is no Way this is gonna fit in the fic wordcount limit (and a lot of it is background understanding to all my other fics too lmao) so who wants to talk about fiddly somewhat mundane toad-centric worldbuilding in regards to Imperial Amphibia -> Caste System Implementation time period??? And even if you don't want to I'm showing it to you anyway.

The 4 tower lords (Cardinal Lords used as an older title when I write) as participants and vassals to the Newtopian military is... pretty new. Especially because toad clans didn't really have a formal military in the first place (and still don't- toad army we see is an arm/branch of the overall Newtopian/specifically Leviathan-ruled Amphibian military). Previously, of course everyone paid fealty (and taxes but we will get to those) to the crown, expected to follow the laws of the united empire under the Leviathan dynasty, but toad clanheads and lords acting in a formal military position in direct vassalage to another army is... definitely new. As far as 'new' goes for a place with an implied-lengthy history as Amphibia does.

Nowadays becoming a Cardinal Lord means becoming an officer- if said lord wasn't already one in the first place. It's a more concrete requirement in the modern era, but before that, hey, remember what I said about taxes? It's relevant just stick with me a bit pls.

So, with the Me-Brand toadbuilding, toads were traditionally nomadic, and likely a more pastoralist society (tarantula cheese...). This did include very few permanent communities toad caravans cycled through, usually as a place of trade/commerce and cultural significance (specifically cairns and mass gravesites) for individual and allied clans. And from there, the majority of toads split into a bunch of much smaller semi-mobile camps that joined and split, in accordance to whatever understanding or trade agreement or alliance or rivalry their clan might have with other clans. These towns are still around despite how vastly different they are, and three of them are in the territory of a Tower- South Tower is the exception to this, since the southern toad population used to be so heavily intermixed with frogs they lived pretty equally spread inside the same township. Which oof, way to show how things change for the worst in a thousand years.

Pre-Andrias, taxes could be paid in both currency and bulk goods or productions- and they could make that work, because of the seemingly-infinite power source music box battery maintaining all their tech and infrastructure. Frequently, this was how toads paid their taxes- a bit harder to do pure currency payments, as well as y'know not rlly paying property taxes due to not privately owning much land.

(It was also, I want to note, supplemented by raiding rival or enemy clans, because they’re still a martial society- they aren’t peaceful nomads before Andrias fucked up everything, they’re violent and there’s inherent problems with gatekeeping someone from community aspects on the basis of whether or not they've killed something/own a weapon. Which we will get to the owning a weapon thing Also in a bit).

Buttttt after the box was stolen, there were a few policy changes. Taxes were required as coppers- ostensibly to bolster restructuring efforts now that the Calamity tech that was the fulcrum for their ENTIRE INFRASTRUCTURE was burglarized. Coppers hich they don’t have much use for and thus don't have much circulating… yeah. But hey, specifically military service can be offered instead of coppers for taxes, at least for toads and some newts. Doesn't hurt that offering an out from taxes via military enlistment keeps toads and some newts from kicking up a very bloody, very messy fuss while the whole 'I invented speciesism and an oppressive caste system because I'm mad at my girlfriend and boyfriend' thing was being pushed through to law. Between breaking the law with all the severe risk of a nasty punishment/heavy fine that entails, or military service with some Perks of Power for an already highly combative culture? Yeah, no-brainer for why we barely see any non-military toads on screen. (This entire thing is a pretty damn slick move when it comes to enforcing ranks and systems. And admittedly less hamfisted than what we see in modern canon because frankly I think Andrias stopped caring about being careful with his enforcement of it once it became more self-sustaining)

The very messy, very bloody messes did happen, btw. After the last rebellion early into Andrias's reign (mostly made up of toads and frogs working together. Man this just makes it even more depressing to see the state of things in modern eras), only toads that were either in training, currently enlisted, or veterans were allowed to own and carry weapons. Which, beyond the practical problems of 'Amphibia is a dangerous place with lots of things that want to kill, eat, and/or poison you', when toad rites of passage and traditions, up to and including standards for being considered and allowed to act as a legal adult, rely on the use, ownership, or exchange of weaponry and blades... hm. Oh dear.

It's even worse for the frogs btw. Unless a frog somehow ended up actively serving a military term (which they are discouraged to), frogs were disallowed weapons at all. Because de-fanging and controlling who is allowed to be armed is kinda one of the first steps to suppressing and controlling groups of people, with one of the OTHER steps being financially suppressing and controlling (see the taxes thing, upward movement being nearly impossible for frogs and toads). Also contributes to casualties for frogs being way higher than they used to, since if they're a law-abiding citizen and get caught by a hungry predator, or bandits on the road, or any number of things they cant just drive off with pitchforks and slingshots, they're kinda screwed! It's messed up! And it's usually disregarded by newts and toads, because frogs are light on their feet, quite springy, they can just run, yeah?

Fun fact tho, this makes the Plantar basement stash SUPER illegal for some spicy revolutionary reasons. Hell yes good for them.

[autumn-may]

(Click for better quality)

Khtober day 17-Keykid

Random bonus drawings (below cut)