Mocking Men of Power: Comic Art in Birmingham, 1861–1911 by Stephen Roberts and Roger Ward

Reviewed by: Mocking Men of Power: Comic Art in Birmingham, 1861–1911 by Stephen Roberts and Roger Ward Richard Scully (bio) Stephen Roberts and Roger Ward, Mocking Men of Power: Comic Art in Birmingham, 1861–1911 (Birmingham: Birmingham Biographies, 2014), pp. iv+ 148, £8.99 paperback. The authors of this tremendous little volume have done a great service to the scholarship on Victorian comic art and the satirical press in a key non-Metropolitan context. The excessive scholarly and popular focus on London-based satirical art is something that has only recently come under scrutiny. Henry Miller, in “The Problem with Punch” (Historical Research 82, no. 216 [2009]: 285–302), was arguably the first to take aim at how scholars have largely ignored provincial Britain (as did Punch itself), despite the flourishing and strikingly original work that appeared in comic periodicals published in centers like Birmingham, Liverpool, and Norwich. What Miller hinted at—that Birmingham was probably the most important of these locations—is now affirmed by the good work of Roberts and Ward. The book is divided into three main parts: an introduction, a useful chronology, and then the bulk of the volume, which offers commentary on sixty selected cartoons. This commentary is presented in the manner of W. A. Coupe’s foundational method of cartoon analysis in the 1980s and 1990s. Helpful front and back matter includes a section on further reading, which is important considering that scholarship on the Birmingham-based satirical press is new and uncharted. In their introduction, the authors explore the important broader context for satirical magazine production. The opening section, “Punch for Birmingham,” provides a tantalizing glimpse of the excessiveness of the seriocomic industry in the Midland Metropolis (this despite so few of the known periodicals having survived the intervening decades). Similarly tantalizing and worthy of further meticulous research is Roberts and Ward’s unique exploration of the owners and writers of these ephemeral publications and the content they fostered. On par with their focus on the men behind the business of satirical journalism is their examination of the cartoonists themselves, which forms the longest section of the introduction. Therein, key personalities like the influential George Henry Bernasconi (1841–1916) and the lesser-known Ernest Chesmer Mounford (1844–1922) and George Joseph Sershall (1839–1908) are given deserved consideration. The authors also draw attention to the Birmingham apprenticeship of Ally Sloper artist William Giles Baxter (1856–1888), who drew for the Owl before moving to London in 1882. Henry Miller observed that in the 1890s the beginning of the nationalization of the press produced much of this thriving provincial culture of difference, but Roberts and Ward have found that periodicals like the Owl, Dart, Town Crier, and Gridiron provided a powerful venue for Birmingham [End Page 729] cartoonists right down to the end of the Edwardian period. Their work therefore adds much to our understanding of how Victorian periodical culture persisted beyond the nominal and convenient end date of tradition. As might be expected, the chief focus for Bernasconi and his fellow cartoonists was Joseph Chamberlain, a dominant figure in Birmingham politics throughout the period. The monocled radical-cum-imperialist was lauded and lampooned on a regular basis in periodicals like the Owl and the Dart. But to their credit, Roberts and Ward broaden their focus to observe how other Birmingham politicians and personalities (including Francis Schnadhorst, George Dawson, and Robert Dale) were treated by cartoonists. That said, the Chamberlain material is perhaps the most interesting in the volume, making it an ideal adjunct to other recent studies of “Joe” that have emphasized his international, national, and local importance. Ian Cawood and Chris Upton have provided the best of these recent studies in a chapter on Birmingham satirical journals published in their own edited collection, Joseph Chamberlain: International Statesman, National Leader, Local Icon (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2016). Reading their work in tandem with Roberts and Ward’s study is the surest way to open up new perspectives on an under-studied field. As the authors also point out, the editions of the Owl and the Dart on which the book has been based rest conveniently in the Birmingham Midland Institute’s Library, just waiting...

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