Mr. Block is an American comics character, created by Ernest Riebe in 1912 and commemorated in a song written by Joe Hill. He is the protagonist of an eponymous satirical comics series which appeared in left-wing publications to sympathize with the common worker. Decades later ''Mr. Block'' gained historical importance for being a predecessor to

underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

Comic strip

Mr. Block, who has no first name, was created on November 7, 1912, by Ernest Riebe, a member of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...

(IWW). Block appeared that day in the

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newspaper ''

Industrial Worker The ''Industrial Worker'', "the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism", is the magazine of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). It is currently released quarterly. The publication is printed and edited by union labor, and is frequently ...

'', smoking a cigar and wearing a checkered suit with top hat. Subsequently, Mr. Block lost the fancy clothes but often kept a hat, ten sizes too small, perched on one corner of his wooden blockhead. "Mr. Block is legion," wrote Walker C. Smith in 1913. "He is representative of that host of slaves who think in terms of their masters. Mr. Block owns nothing, yet he speaks from the standpoint of the millionaire; he is patriotic without patrimony; he is a law-abiding outlaw... holicks the hand that smites him and kisses the boot that kicks him... the personification of all that a worker should not be."

The song

Joe Hill wrote "Mr. Block" to the tune of "It Looks to Me Like a Big Time Tonight". The song, like the comic strip, is bitterly satirical about the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

and the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. Sometimes also called "Please Give Me Your Attention", it has remained a popular number through multiple editions of the ''

Little Red Songbook 180px, The ''Little Red Songbook'' Since the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) songs have played a large part in spreading the message of the One Big Union. The songs are preserved in the ''Little Red Songbook''. Definition ...

''.

References

Ernest Riebe (orig. 1913), ''Mr. Block: Twenty-Four IWW Cartoons'', (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1984) and .

External links

A collection of cartoons at the IWW website
1912 comics debuts Comics about politics American comics characters American comic strips Comics characters introduced in 1912 Fictional construction workers Industrial Workers of the World publications Male characters in comics Satirical comics Songs with lyrics by Joe Hill (activist) Songs about comics Songs about fictional male characters Trade union songs American satire American political satire Comic strips started in the 1910s {{Comic-strip-stub