The Egg Poacher

George du Maurier (1834-1896) is chiefly remembered for Trilby and his single-panel cartoons. He joined the staff of Punch in 1864, and by 1869 began to experiment with multiple panels, although most were more a series of vignettes on a theme rather than sequential. I wonder how indebted he was to the example of C. H. Ross’ gin-soaked Ally Sloper caption strips from Judy? Here are three of du Maurier’s brightest and funniest caption comics, all from Volume 56 of Punch. The hopper portrayed puts me in mind of Toad of Toad Hall as imagined by the brilliant illustrator and Punch cartoonist Ernest Howard Shepard.

Illustration above from In Bohemia with du Maurier, the First of a Series of Reminiscences by Felix Moscheles NY: Harper & Brothers, 1897