John Bull's Animated Sketchbook No. 4
An animated recreation of the sinking of the Lusitania is the centrepiece of this pioneering mix of comedy, satire and outrage in cartoon propaganda.
An early edition from a series which marked the true beginning of British animation. The pioneering mix in this issue includes political cartoons, an animated reconstruction of the sinking of the Lusitania and comic scenes of a cartoon Chaplin. Postcard illustrator Dudley Buxton pushed rapidly beyond the filmed 'lightning sketch' to explore the potential of a new art form with wit and innovation.
PROPAGANDA/ANIMATION. Anti-German propaganda cartoon, featuring the sinking of
the 'Lusitania', a parody of a Harry Tate motoring sketch featuring the
Kaiser, and Charlie Chaplin swatting a fly.
"Bill has trouble with his halo" - Kasier Wilhelm is pictured as an angel
playing a lyre and singing, "You made me HATE you. I didn't want to do it".
His halo slips round his neck and he is strangled.
"The growing act of PIRACY" - sketch of a large steam ship "The sinking of the
Lusitania", the background is filled in and the ship begins to move. A
periscope appears and a torpedo is fired; the submarine appears and the ship
is sinks. New sketch of Alfred Von Tirpitz [Commander of the German Navy],
framed by an Iron Cross the cross is turned into a flag and the face turned
into a skull and crossbones.
"MOTORING" With profound apologies to Mr Harry Tate - Sketch of Kaiser Wilhelm
and his son the crown prince in a car. "Haw! I shall get to Calais in about
three weeks" "Yes, Papa!" "I DON'T think". They drive off, "Looks a bit rocky
ahead!" "Yes Papa" - they drive over a sleeping lion, and crash, "Oh Potsdam!"
"Yes Papa". The lion sits up and shakes the union jack on its tail.
Swat that fly! - drawing of a lamppost and an overweight policeman leaning on
it, pestered by a fly. Charlie Chaplin walks in reading a paper with the
headline, "Fly Peril". He returns with a sledgehammer and floors the
policeman, but misses the fly. Charlie enters a bar and orders a beer,
followed by the fly; he swallows the beer but also the fly, causing him to
jump about and fall out of the bar [abrubt end]
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The First World War: Drawing the Enemy
Britain's cartoonists take up their brushes to confront the Kaiser and his armies.
As the First World War raged across Europe, Britain's animators dedicated themselves to the propaganda effort. These determined artists, among them Lancelot Speed, Dudley Buxton, GW Studdy and Anson Dyer, unleashed an arsenal of tricks with one objective - making the enemy look ridiculous, and victory seem inevitable.
In cartoon after cartoon, lightning sketch after lightning sketch, the elaborately-moustached 'Kaiser Bill' was subjected to a catalogue of indignities, whether at the hands of 'Tommy', 'John Bull' and their allies, or just falling victim to his own hubris.
15 videos in this collection
1
2
Sea Dreams
3
Sleepless
4
Peter's Picture Poems
5
John Bull's Animated Sketchbook No. 4
6
John Bull's Sketch Book
7
John Bull's Animated Sketch Book
8
Bully Boy
9
Anti-German War Cartoons
10
A Pencil and Alick P.F. Ritchie
11
First World War Cartoon - Joffre
12
Studdy's War Cartoons Compilation Film
13
Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm II
14
Agitated Adverts
15