The Comic Cards of Donald McGill and Douglas Tempest in World War One

Peter Tucker compares these two giants of the comic postcard scene

(Originally published in Picture Postcard Annual 1996)

(Reproduced by kind permission.)

2 Kaiser Wilhelm II

A fire of Patriotism burned through the country in the first months of the war, fuelled by reports of German brutality in Belgium and northern France. The public's anger was concentrated on one German, Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was lampooned by cartoonists in the daily papers, political magazines and even children's comics. Picture postcard artists also had a field day attacking him and Tempest and McGill were no exception.

Bamforth published a large series of cards at the beginning of the war entitled 'War Cartoons', followed by 'Xmas Cartoons' for Christmas 1914. Both series featured designs deriding the Kaiser, none of these were signed but it is probable they were by Douglas Tempest. He was the only staff artist working for Bamforth's at the time, although they did use freelance artists occasionally. Examine two cards shown here, one a non-specific series published by Bamforth in the U.S.A.: "Soak him one for me. Give him beans", which is signed. The other from the 'Xmas Cartoons' series no.39 'The Kaiser's Xmas We Don't Think", which depicts the Kaiser and his son, the crowned prince, 'little Willie', who was often lampooned along with his father. Surely these are by the same hand.

Now compare Donald McGill's 'A D--- Rotten Pear", on card no.287 in "Two-Eight-One" series. McGill was very fond of using jokes with double meanings and this visual joke is obvious. These cards exhibit the high standard of artistic ability that people came to expect from these artists. Tempest greatly exaggerates the Kaiser's moustache in the unsigned card. McGill achieves a very good likeness on his profile, particularly around the eye.

Little Willie is shown by both artists to be a long-necked chinless fool: note the message on his iron cross in the Tempest card (very understated!).

On a later card McGill depicts an older and rather portly Kaiser along with eleven other lunatics. Tempest featured him in later series "Topical Xmas" and "Witty Comic". These were signed and no.429 in the latter series is a good example of this. It shows the Kaiser as a child sitting in a wooden bath tub with his back to the viewer. There is a hole in the side of the tub and water is running out. "There's a long trail a-trickling! And he ought to be ashamed of himself when this lot's through!" This caption was a parody of a popular song. Tempest was to make the subject of children in a bath tub very much his own, as can be seen in another pair of illustrations.