Creighton University

Alas, how many international conflicts follow the pattern of this sad fable of two enemies meeting on an bridge large enough for only one.  Does the impact of a cartoon like this depend utterly on the audience's knowing the fable beforehand? 

John Bull as the fox holds out his hat to catch Egypt as the Sultan is ready to let it drop.  I note the unusual "Corbiau" and "biau" but am not sure how they add to the humor or critique here.  I suspect that there is more going on than I can perceive!

Behind an attractive woman, the invitation takes on more meaning: "I will walk for you and you will see for me." 

A hungry wolf is here, and someone is seeking adventure.  I myself am not too sure who is the wolf and who is the lamb in this attractive sketch.  I also have a crazy sense that we have this illustration already somewhere in the collection, but I cannot find it.

Is the joke here that the man has consumed sour grapes and is now vomiting?  And the woman seems to be enjoying it?  Help!

I have no idea how "tourte" (meat pie) figures here.  I gather he is asking what her costume represents and she is answering first "a La Fontaine fable."  Then to his silence she further responds "The Jay with Peacock Feathers."  Is she calling him a "dummy"?

Three panels at top and three at bottom present La Fontaine's fable, complete with his verses.  In the center, flanked by the two animals, is a panel of two humans.  Is that a fox on the right wheedling a vote out of an unsuspecting rustic on the left? 

Is the wolf in pink about to devour the fascinated male lamb in gray? 

England holding its ships looks at the little frog and finds him blowing himself up with ships.  Is England even giving ships to the frog?  Is that the famed British fleet in the background?  A little online research suggests that Testevuide did several covers for "Le Cri de Paris."

Some study has not helped me to identify these figures or even what happens between the final two.  The pattern follows La Fontaine's OF, but I am unsure how.  A military leader looks at Napoleon and -- following the fable -- thinks he is bigger.  Soon enough an opponent is inflating him.  Is it the left or the right figure that explodes in "colossal" fashion, blown up by Pan-Germanism's pump? 

I purchased this copy wondering if it was a parody on Florian's "Le Chateaux des Cartes."  I doubt that now.  But one never knows.....  Boret was the Minister of Food Control in the late days of World War I.  He is thus the "King of Bread." 

I take it that Uncle Sam is scolding Europe: "See where this stupidity has led.  Take care to avoid such companions."  I am unsure only about the reference here to companions.  Are the nations of Europe to withdraw from Europe?  And is this Uncle Sam Woodrow Wilson?

"The fat Monsieur, furious: 'Say, when have you finished sticking your feet under mine?"  This is the wolf accusing the lamb of muddying his water.  It fits perfectly!  He has been stepping on her feet the whole time. 

From what I can see, this delightful duochrome cartoon presents 1924 – in fact, May 11, 1924 – as a promise of great cooking together between the fox and the stork.  "Help me to make the meal, Goupil.  I'll leave you a nice little part."  I gather that is the voice of the fox Renard.  The pot is labeled "power."  Then in 1928, the fox makes off with the whole pot.  "One part, that is not enough.  I take it all."  In the meantime, what comes dribbling out of the stork's famous vase is "participation."  So "Socialist promises end up being totalitarian"? 

Here the "Lenine" Russian wolf, having gorged himself on the fat bourgeois of Russia, calls to his assistance his ally, the (English) stork.  The latter does her best to assist him, at the risk of getting strangled and devoured when he will have recovered. 

In La Fontaine's fable, the flattering fox gets the crow to forget and release the cheese in his beak.  This time the crow with his cheese comes determined not to let that happen again.  The fox shows up but acts as though he sees nothing.  The angry crow finally shouts at him "Hey, fox, I'm here!"  He again loses his cheese. 

In La Fontaine's fable, the "judge" eats the oyster and gives half a shell each to the two men arguing over the oyster, since one saw it first and the other got there first.  Here the "litigants" go away angry, but the judge gets sick and has to keep running to the toilet.  Moral: theft and gluttony deserve punishment.