Camouflage Cartoons | Maurice Ketten

Until a few days ago, we had never heard of an Italian-born American cartoonist named Maurice Ketten (1875-?), née Prosper Fiorini, and at this point we still know very little. Apparently he studied art in Paris at the École des Beaux Arts, then emigrated to the US around 1906. He became a well-known cartoonist for the New York World (1907-1930s), for which he produced a daily cartoon. Shown here are two cartoons he made about camouflage that were featured in the Washington Post in 1917.

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Dialog for Office Camouflage (above)—

—Mr. John, hereafter I want to see you at your desk more. You spend too much time out of the office. Tell Mr. Bill this applies to him too.

—Yes , Boss.

—He! He!

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—Yes, Boss, they are at their desks.

—Good!

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—Did it work?

—Yes, the boss thinks he saw you at your desk, Mr. John.

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Dialog for Home Camouflage (below)—

—Go to our room and go to bed! You can't go out tonight.

—O, very well.

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—The inventor of the fire escape must have been a married man.

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—Something queer! He is not snoring.

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—Well! What a clever home camouflage!

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—Won't she get onto it?

—Never! If she goes to my room she'll think I'm asleep. I did a nice little bit of camouflage.

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—The idiot! He doesn't know yet after forty years that he never sleeps without snoring.