Cartoons about hoboes are familiar; less so are cartoons by and for hoboes.  The Bowery News began life as the Hobo News; it was aimed at hoboes, panhandlers, Bowery bums, dishwashers, and barflies, and called itself “The Voice of Society’s Basement.”  It ran poetry, stories, cartoons, photos, and news from the hobo community.  It was […]

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Menko is an old Japanese game, more recently popularized in the west as Pogs.  Players compete to flip over opponents’ cards; each card usually has a picture of a hand as well, to add rock-paper-scissors to the game. I usually like to give just one example, but these are unusual and fun to look at, […]

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The backs of these cards identify them as “The Inka Culture.”  Each card carries some motif from the Andes.  There is no date or publisher on my copy.  I don’t know if the Incan designs are genuine, but they’re bold and stylish. (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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“Wizard Problem Solvers,” a 1993 offering from Playmore, provided “36 fun-to-do challenges,” all in this casual cartoony style. (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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The Ullage Group has long been fascinated by changing customs in diet. Foods go in and out of fashion; what we eat is telling. I have here two menus from meetings of the Order of the Eastern Star, both from September 1950, both from Connecticut. The Eastern Star was founded as an order for wives […]

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There were many decks around 1900 that promoted the different states; each card had a different picture, usually black and white photos with pastel overlays.  This Floridian sample offers a handsome razor back hog as Joker.  The backs were quite decorative as well. (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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Piatnik, in Vienna, was responsible for this “Black Peter” deck.  Black Peter accompanies St. Nicholas at Christmas; the card game is similar to “Old Maid,” with Peter as the jinx.  He was once represented as an African in colorful silk, but is now usually seen as a chimney sweep.  In this animal themed deck, he’s […]

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Captain Turtle cuts a dashing figure in this early edition of “Old Maid.”  His colleagues include Ching Chang Chung (a Chinese citizen), Billy Bat (a baseball player), 15th Amendment (a freed slave), Dicky Fop (a fashion plate), Fast Horse (a boy on a rocking horse), and Corporal March (a soldier). The Old Maid is, atypically, […]

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Girtie Giggle is featured in the 1935 Russell edition of “Slap Jack.”  The players are instructed to giggle when her portrait appears.  Likewise, Willie Whistle is to be met with whistling, Hi Sing with singing, and Slap Jack with slapping.  Card playing need not be quiet.  And the design, and two-color printing, are pretty snappy. […]

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Under the title “Epitomes,” Elwin Volk and Dennis McCalib produced a series of curious pamphlets.  The ones I have were all published in Los Angeles or Pasadena in 1949 and 1950; I found them in a library sale a few years ago, and have been puzzling over them ever since.  (Please click on the thumbnails […]

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