The Phunny Phellow, published from 1859 to 1876, was one of the cheapest looking humor magazines in America.  The paper was of poor quality, the typography and layout were sloppy, and a good deal of the prose was lifted without credit from other periodicals. 

But, as a rule, its cartoons were great.  This is because Phunny Phellow was Thomas Nast's graphic playground.  In the New York Illustrated News (1860-1862) and in Harper's Weekly (1862 on), Nast presented himself as a serious artist/illustrator.  Even the cartoons that he contributed to those weeklies had a restraint about them befitting their surroundings.  But in the cartoons he drew for Phunny Phellow (and he drew most of the cartoons that appeared in the magazine during the Civil War), he cut loose, reveling in its low-rent atmosphere.  Oddly enough, the cartoons were made even more vital, more immediate, because the engraver that Phunny Phellow employed to convert Nast's drawings to wood was bad at his job --heavy-handed and sometimes even artless.  This poor translation seemed to make Nast's big headed and ugly Lincoln all the more endearing and his sinister Davis all the more evil.

Phunny Phellow was decidedly Unionist in its sympathies.  Nast wouldn't have worked for it had it been anything else.  But it is interesting to note that while Nast the cartoonist pushed the limit of his craft in Phunny Phellow, Nast the commentator did not.  Nast's Harper's Weekly contributions are far more fervent in their support for Lincoln and the Union than are his Phunny Phellow cartoons.  In Phunny Phellow, after the disaster of Fredericksburg, he drew Lincoln taking a snooze.  And he frequently egged on Lincoln to be tougher.  But, more often than not, Nast seemed content to have fun with his caricatures and leave the heavy commentary out.

Nast closed out the war in Phunny Phellow by drawing a series of full-page caricatures of Civil War personalities.  They are bold and beautiful, deserving to be ranked with his best caricatures.

By Richard S. West

 

 

 

Website design © 2000-2007 HarpWeek LLC
All Content © 1998-2007 HarpWeek, LLC
Please submit questions to support@harpweek.com