The Goat Getters: Jack Johnson, the Fight of the Century, and How a Bunch of Raucous Cartoonists Reinvented Comics Hardback

A rip-roaring and exhaustively researched new take on the origin of thecomic strip by one of the leading cartoon storytellers of our time. Withmore than 500 period cartoons, The Goat Getters illustrates how comics weredeveloped by such luminaries as Rube Goldberg, Tad Dorgan, and George Herrimanin the sports and lurid crime pages of the daily newspaper.

This wild bunch ofWest Coast-based cartoonists established the dynamic anatomy and bold, toughstyle that continue to influence comics today, as well as their own goofy slangthat enriched the popular lexicon. The Goat Getters also captures earlytwentieth century-history through the lens of the newspaper comics: the landmark1910 boxing match in Reno, Nevada between Jim Jeffries, the "Great WhiteHope," and Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion;the nationwide race riots that followed; the San Francisco graft trials thatculminated in the shooting of the Federal Prosecutor; and the trial of HarryThaw for the murder of architect Stanford White, a crime of passion thatcentered on Thaw's wife, show-girl Evelyn Nesbitt Thaw-all werevenerated or vilified by Nell Brinkley, Jimmy Swinnerton,