January 13, 1935

February 7, 1937

1 [1961] Detail from Grin and Bear It by Lichty, Sunday page

CARTOONS by George Maurice Lichtenstein (1905-83) who presented himself as ‘Geo. M. Lichty’, signing his work ‘Lichty’ — with the dot on the ‘i’ as a small circle.

      

3 [1947] Modern Screen (advertisement)

4 [1947] Modern Screen (advertisement)

5 [1948] Modern Screen (advertisement)

by E.M. Sanchez-Saavedra

The Ripan’s Tabules ads appeared in an 1898 paperback edition of On the Firing Line, a Spanish-American War novel by “Douglas Wells” (a house name shared by Upton Sinclair, Harrie Irving Hancock, Enrique Lewis and Frederick R. Burton) in Street and Smith’s Columbia Library: War Stories of To-Day. The verse is so awful, that this ad is a surefire winner.

Ripan’s Tabules, sold from the 1860s onward, were composed of rhubarb, ipecac, peppermint, aloes, nux vomica and soda. There was also a chocolate-covered version to assist in swallowing this nauseating mess. (Ipecac, derived from the rhizome Ipecacuanha, induced violent vomiting. Nux vomica was derived from the Strychnine tree and caused convulsions.) I’m surprised that this patent medicine had any repeat customers.

“Cascarets” were probably made of an extract from the bark of the Rhamnus Purshiana, or “Cascara.” It was a recognized laxative. “No-To-Bac” was one of hundreds of stop-smoking aids available. It contained a hefty dose of opium.

W. Heath Robinson self-portrait and signature courtesy of Don Kurtz. The advertisement below is from October 1920 in the Daily Mail.

A reader sent these scans of a martini jug and asked if I could identify the artist. The style is a late fifties early sixties "modern" style, in the sense that the minimal style used is similar to Hanna Barbara or UPA’s minimal style.

Another source that suggests itself is that it may have been originally produced and sold through one of the men's magazines like True or Argosy who manufactured quite a few drinking items with cartoons adorning them. However those were usually done by big-name popular cartoonists like Virgil Partch who are immediately identifiable.

*Photos by Bruce Ramsay

Here's a variety of comic ads published between 1950 and 1960 in New York. For sale are bullwhips, (use it for self defense or to train cats and dogs,) blackhead removers (using the needle-shaped Vacutex,) Goya's Spanish Nude stamp (25 cents,) disappearing keys (they had a spike on the back of the key with which you would, while feigning a pass, impale it onto the back of your hand,) an invisible helmet, or a 500 page comic book (Treasure Chest of the World's Best Comics.)