Even though Rube Goldberg worked at a minor New York paper, the, his comic genius wasn't kept under wraps for long. It wasn't his wacky inventions, though, that first brought him fame -- that came later -- but rather a series called Foolish Questions. In Goldberg's daily comic strips, which carried no consistent running title, one of his recurring features has some boob asking the sort of incredibly stupid question that doesn't deserve an answer. The inflicted-upon quashes their desire to brain the idiot and instead answers the question with a non sequitur so bizarre that it is sure to make the questioner's little pea-brain melt.The series was so popular that a reprint book was issued in 1909, only a year after Goldberg began the series in the. In the same year theprocured the rights to publish a Sunday comic series reprinting the panels, with some spot color added. In thethe series went by a title that was itself a rather foolish question --Theseries began on July 18 1909 and ran until August 21 1910.

Labels: Obscurities