Here at the Cartoon Library, we were absolutely charmed to come across this tearsheet in the Comic Supplement of the New York Journal in the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection. Frederick Burr Opper, the creator of Happy Hooligan and one of the most famous cartoonists of his time, commenting on the rise of women in the theater world in 1900.

“Is Woman Driving Man Off the Stage?” by Frederick Burr Opper, tearsheet from the Comic Supplement of the New York Journal. From the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

In all of it’s ridiculousness, we find “Is Woman Driving Man Off the Stage?” to be yet another fantastic example of the use of comics as social commentary on its time.