Political Cartoon with Comic Strip Characters, 1906

Louis M. Glackels created this Puck magazine cartoon depicting William Randolph Hearst as a manipulative puppet master controlling popular newspaper comic characters—*Foxy Grandpa*, *Happy Hooligan*, *Alphonse and Gaston*, *The Katzenjammer Kids*, and *Buster Brown*. The yellow signs held by characters reference contemporary political scandals and voting campaigns, while burning buildings frame the scene. This image captures a crucial moment when newspaper comics had become mass-market phenomena with genuine cultural power. The cartoon satirizes Hearst's influence over both comics and politics, illustrating how early-twentieth-century cartoonists understood their medium as a tool capable of swaying public opinion. It documents the newspaper comic strip's rapid evolution from entertainment into a politically significant form.