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The Katzies ghosted by Frederick Burr Opper, creator of Happy Hooligan. According to my freind Holmes "I agree that this is likely an Opper creation, but it's even more of an admixture than it first appears! The black man is Sam from Jimmy Swinnerton's "And Sam Laughed" strip!"
And that is not all, the character of the mule is a spoof of Opper's own 1904 comic strip And Her Name was Maud!
Bedelia, I'd like to steal ya, was a top jazz hit of 1903. One mystery remaining, who are "der Raxies," vaudeville artists ?
Winnipeg Tribune 27 July 1918. Original was copyright King Features Syndicate 1904.
Hello---In the late 'teens to the early twenties, King features offered a group of second-echelon Sunday strips, including old Dirks episodes of the Katzenjammers, re-titled "THE KATZIES". Despite the "Copyright 1904" on this example, this episode is from mid-1908. The "Raxie" business is from the two college boys, seen here , part of a long continuity, is based on their college yell. Swinnerton's "Laughing Sam" makes an odd appearance here, but the whole cartoon is drawn by Dirks. The mule is just a mule, not really identified as "Maud". If any other cartoonists decided to jam with one another, as they would do from time to time, they always made it plain by signing their work.----Cole Johnson.
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