Here’s a real gem for you all. In 1942, the one and only Rube Goldberg made this strip for Pepsi Cola. It appeared on august 16, but I’m not sure in which papers.
Goldberg (1883-1970) was one of the most famous cartoonists in the first half of the twentieth century. As Wikipedia puts it :
“He drew cartoons for several newspapers, including the New York Evening Journal and the New York Evening Mail. His work entered syndication in 1915, beginning his nationwide popularity. A prolific artist, Goldberg produced several cartoon series simultaneously; titles included Mike and Ike, Boob McNutt, Foolish Questions, Lala Palooza, and The Weekly Meeting of the Tuesday Women’s Club.“
Goldberg was most famous for his Rube Goldberg Machines, a series of cartoons involving very intricate machines devised to perform very basic and simple tasks. It got so popular that Merriam-Webster‘s lists the word Rube Goldberg as
“accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply <a kind of Rube Goldberg contraption…with five hundred moving parts — L. T. Grant>; also : characterized by such complex means”.
When the US Post issued a series of stamps commemorating classic American strips, the Goldberg Machine was celebrated along with the likes of Popeye, Gasoline Alley and Flash Gordon.
