While doing terribly important research into the history of comic books and comic strips, I discovered the grandpappy of 'em all --
Ally Sloper. He was a British ne'er-do-well (much like the later Andy Capp), whose illustrated adventures had a large audience between 1867 and 1916. In Victorian parlance, an "alley sloper" is someone who slopes out of the back door to hide in the alley when the landlord shows up.
Intrigued, I went searching for examples of actual Ally Sloper comics.
What I found came as a surprise. The humor in these panels has not dated -- in fact, it seems very, very relevant.
Alas, I couldn't find the end of this story online. I suspect that we're living it.
5 comments:
This is stunning. And much funnier than anything a modern humorist has come up with about our situation.
Some précising required:
IKY: Hey, if we give the auditor a hundred thou, and the guy at the Treasury another, then when it comes out that no-one can pay us back, the government will pay us 50 million to avoid admitting what it's allowed us to do!
ALLY: "Now that's what I call leveraging!
b
PS, and off-topic: if this guy gets a post in the new Israeli 'government' (as is extremely likely if Netanyahu wins), never forget that during the recent massacre he called for nuking Gaza.
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[Scene of Iky and Ally, sneaking off with a couple of bags of money in the middle of the night]
Where did the money go? Why, Iky and Ally secretly spirited it away to use it to make even more money...
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[Scene of Iky handing a bag of money to a fat cat politician]
...and to buy the next election.
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[Scene of interior of Moses and Slope, open (and empty) safe, govt types giving Iky and Aly bags of money]
Some time later, government auditors descend, take pity on our poor duo, and compensate them for the money they "lost."
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[Scene of ordinary folks being led by police into debtor's prison]
Meanwhile, the public gets some time off.
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[Scene of Iky and Ally, high-backed armchairs arranged before a roaring fire, bags of money piled high all around. Ally is smirking and feeding the fire with money from one bag, Iky is smoking a cigar, and using another bag as a footstool. Iky is reading a newspaper (which he has dropped somewhat as to to speak to Ally) but the headline is still visible: "Depression Looms" ]
Iky remarks, "Some people just don't know how to make money."
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Sergei Rostov
Oh! I wasn't aware that Ally Sloper was a cartoon character.
My Yorkshire (UK) born and bred grandmother used to use the name frequently..."He's a right Ally Slooper" she'd say (pronouncing it thus) when describing some fly-by-night fellow, who was not to be trusted. I never asked who Mr. Sloper was. :-)
Your American cartoonist of around the same era, Art Young did some stuff which is almost as relevant today as it was in the past. O cam across it during the recent election campaign. He was very good!
http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/visual_arts/satire/young/index.htm
Final panel: Iky buys a casino cruise ship and uses it to smuggle ecstasy for the Israel mob.
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