GRGR(22) - Wilhem Busch

[David Morris]

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(501.6)  It's a face. [...] the draftsmanship is a little like a Wilhelm 
Busch cartoon face, some old fool [the Captain] for mischievous boys to play 
tricks on
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from:
http://www.geocities.com/~jimlowe/katzies/katzdex.html

ORIGIN OF THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS

The Katzenjammer Kids are based on "Max und Moritz," similarly mischievous 
young boys created by artist Wilhelm Busch in Germany.  Max und Moritz had 
been popular in their homeland for more than 30 years before the 
Americanized version first appeared in William Randolph Hearst's New York 
Journal Sunday supplement.

While touring Europe as a boy Hearst became familiar with the adventures of 
Max und Moritz.  Many years later, as an ambitious newspaper publisher, he 
was instrumental in the creation and popularization of their American 
counterparts.

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The main characters in the Katzenjammer Kids comic strip were Mamma 
Katzenjammer, her twin sons, Hans and Fritz, and the long-suffering target 
of their mischief, The Captain.  The Katzenjammer Kids is an "ethnic" comic 
strip.  All of the characters speak with a German accent.  "Just" becomes 
"chust," "we" becomes "ve," and the Captain is, of course, "der Captain."  
This device provided part of the charm of the strip in the early days, 
though it may be regarded as politically incorrect today.

In the early decades of the strip's existence, the Katzenjammer family 
engaged in adventures all over the world.  Ultimately, they settled on a 
tropical island.  But, wherever they were, the continuing and repeated theme 
centered around the ability of Hans and Fritz to pull creative pranks, get 
into trouble as a result, and end up being hunted down or spanked over 
someone's knee in the last panel.

from:
http://www.rivertext.com/max.html
(Max and Moritz drawing)

from:
http://www.rivertext.com/busch.shtml

W.B. 1832-1908

Wilhelm Busch, painter, early cartoonist, and most beloved of all German 
poets, was born April 15, 1832, in the village of Wiedensahl near Hannover 
in Lower Saxony, Germany. His greatest ambition was to emulate the Dutch and 
Flemish masters - Rubens, Hals, Brouwer, Ostade. Instead, he "stumbled into 
immortality", as the first German Federal President, Theodor Heuss, once put 
it, through a few caricatures he was asked to do for the satirical magazine 
"Fliegende Blaetter" that was founded in Munich in 1848. He soon started to 
add his own humorous verses, and his cartoons became longer and more 
elaborate; he can be regarded as the father of the modern comic strip, and 
wherever an Englishman would quote Lewis Carroll's "Alice", a German is 
likely to quote Busch. Although famous in his later years, he lived quite 
withdrawn and despised the fuss he thought was made about him. The "Hermit 
of Wiedensahl" died a confirmed bachelor on January 9, 1908, but his 
slapstick humour and his unforgettable characters live on forever.



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