Among the many joys found in the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection, are the vibrantly colored and uniquely designed covers of The New York Herald‘s colored comics section. The cover below, from 1900, features one of Richard F. Outcault’s lesser-known and short-lived comic strips, Nixie. Nixie was an adventurous, clever, flirtatious and adorable (though oddly dressed) young boy, occasionally featured in the pages of the Herald. Nixie is brought to life on the cover below, during a time of increasingly popular use of the juxtaposition of painted photographs with cartoon art.

Richard F. Outcault’s “Nixie”. From the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection, The Ohio state University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

We think “Asworstos Factory” is Nixie humor at it’s very finest.

Below, a classic Nixie strip, with fabulously illustrated body language.

Richard F. Outcault’s “Nixie”. From the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection, The Ohio state University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)