Before the Cage, There Was Food.

Here are some examples of Ahern's early work, before he started Our Boarding House. The first is a panel from August 22, 1916, that I think shows some surrealist leanings.

Ahern was clearly influenced by Rube Goldberg, and many of his early strips use Goldbergian formulas, including crazy inventions. There's more here, though - look at the building in the lower right corner. It looks like something from Dr. Suess! Such buildings would often appear in the Nut Bros. and later in The Squirrel Cage.

Here's an even better example of surrealism, from Ahern's "Squirrel Food" strip, which featured one of his first regular characters, Balmy Benny. These are dated Sep. 15, 17, and 18, 1917. The boss gives Benny a vacation in Simpgoofia.

Sansón from Argentina

Almost three years ago I posted about a Spanish language version of The Squirrel Cage from Argentina's Billiken Magazine, titled Jopito Y Calvete. I've just found some more from a later period, but now titled Sansón (Samson) - their take on Paul Bunyan. These strips are from the mid-1940s, when Paul Bunyan had become the star of the strip. From what I can see, it appears that Billiken must have followed The Squirrel Cage right through Paul Bunyan's transformation from his enormous, superhuman self to the red-hatted gnome who would remain in Foozland for the remainder of the strip (as far as anyone knows, anyway!) Here's a page from February 26, 1945.

I love this one because it reminds me of Rube Goldberg's fantastic animals from the "Boob's Ark" story in his wonderful Boob McNutt comic strip. Sadly, I don't have this strip in English. I hope to find it one of these days! There are still many pieces of the Foozland puzzle missing… the search continues! More coming soon, I promise!