Hoist, the Friend of the Comic People

Louis M. Glackens's political cartoon celebrates newspaper comic characters as civic allies in a 1906 election. Foxy Grandpa, Happy Hooligan, Alphonse and Gaston, Buster Brown, and the Katzenjammer Kids—drawn by Schultze, Opper, and Dirks—appear as cheerful propagandists urging readers to vote. The cartoon reflects comics' explosive popularity in Sunday papers and dailies, where recurring characters and visual gags had become mass entertainment. By anchoring humor in familiar faces and speech balloons, these strips established the visual grammar modern comics inherit: sequential panels, expressive caricature, and character-driven narrative. The work shows how early comic strips transcended entertainment to influence political discourse, demonstrating their cultural reach.