So careless has been the popular use of the words “cartoonist” and “caricaturist,” that to many minds they no doubt seem practically interchangeable. Yet, as a matter of fact, not only do the two titles imply two different functions of pictorial satiric art, but, although there is a school of that art for almost every one of the great races of civilized men, there is but one school that positively demands the union of these two factors in the work of its pupils. That school is the German school, and it is Mr. Joseph Keppler who, as an American cartoonist and caricaturist, has not only imposed its canons and traditions upon this country, but has, in so doing, placed himself at its head, both in this country and in Europe, by virtue of a genius that has made him eminent above the generation of his masters.

The spirit of French comic art turns distinctly—and delightfully—to caricature. The French “cartoon”—the pictorial lampoon, that is—has but to exhibit in an exaggerated form the objectionable characteristics of an individual, to serve its purpose and to touch its public. It is the revelation of character, of purpose, of intellectual or moral scope which affects, apparently, the French mind, by nature rather observant than deductive. The Anglo-Saxon spirit, less quickly perceptive, more deliberately logical, asks something beyond this of the man who tries to reason with it in a picture. It must be approached by means of a fable, a parable, an allegory, something that will stand the test of argument and comparison. Caricature, or the significant exaggeration of physical characteristics, may or may not be an incident to this.

Few of the English cartoonists, for instance, have been caricaturists of any account. The greatest of them all, John Tenniel, is a cartoonist pure and simple—that is, one who draws allegories or parables. In his delightful “Alice in Wonderland” work, he shows his power of caricature; but in his cartoons he is classically faithful to nature, save for just sufficient accentuation to point his satiric intent. And in the United States, up to twenty years ago, the prime idea of the cartoonist was simply to express in drawing a figure of speech—and the more realistically the better.

If it seems a remarkable thing that the influence of one man should avail to change the taste of a nation in such a manner, it must be remembered that the breadth and force of the German school which Mr. Keppler introduced into this country were peculiarly calculated to appeal to a receptive people, delighting in vigorous expression. For the German school carries the art and mystery of cartooning far beyond any of its rivals. The German conception of the cartoon not only involves a picture parable, it demands that the actors of the fable shall be so drawn as to display their characters in their lineaments, and it asks, moreover, that the allegory shall, if possible, take a distinctive dramatic form, suggestive, at least, of action, and not merely of position.

It was not in the American nature to refuse to recognize the pregnant possibilities of such a school of satiric art. Nor did Mr. Keppler fail to grasp the vast possibilities opened to him by the freedom of American laws and American tradition—social and political.

This collection of Mr. Keppler’s cartoons is not by any means intended to summarize his work during the sixteen years in which he has drawn for Puck—or it would be treble its present size. It simply brings together such examples of his work as may now with propriety be reprinted. This is no slight volume, yet it contains, comparatively, but a narrow choice of the hundreds of cartoons Mr. Keppler has drawn for Puck. It is surprising to consider that this great output is to be credited to a man who has only attained the fullness of life; for Joseph Keppler is but fifty-five years old. He was born in Vienna, February 1st, 1838. His early life was a struggle with poverty; but it was a blithesome and cheerful-hearted struggle, almost romantically full of incident and adventure. He was with equal ease an actor and an artist; and at one time, with a very natural longing for Italy, he wandered through Styria and the Tyrol and, again, through Hungary, making vain attempts, balked by constant misfortune, to enter the land of art. In 1856 he settled down to serious study at the AcadÉmie des Beaux Arts of Vienna. Although his capacity as an artist was increasing year by year, he possessed a histrionic talent that made it hard for him to give up the stage, and as manager and actor he was connected with the theatre even for several years after his arrival in America in 1868. His first years in America were passed in the West; and in St. Louis he started two humorous weeklies, Die Vehme and a too-early Puck. The gods loved both of these ventures too well. It was in 1877 that Mr. Keppler, in association with Mr. Adolph Schwarzmann, first introduced to the American public the school of cartooning which has now become as much ours as Germany’s. This was through the medium of a German edition of Puck. The English Puck was born on March 7th, 1877.

To his colleague of sixteen years’ side-by-side working time, it is a great pleasure to claim for Joseph Keppler the masterhood in the brave art whose present form he introduced to America, and which he has used with enduring courage and growing knowledge to more good ends than need here be told.

March 20th, 1893.

H.C. Bunner.