For almost as long as there have been picture postcards - the first commercial examples of which are believed to have appeared in France in 1870 - a large proportion of them have been funny - or have attempted to be. In both the United States and Britain, there has been a long tradition of comic prototypes - big-bosomed women and henpecked husbands, old maids, racially stereotypical characters, sad-sack soldiers, happy hoboes, hillbillies with moonshine and stills, bashful schoolboys, anthropomorphic animals and humongous fruits.

Some comic postcards were literally adapted from newspaper comic strips. Among the earliest were those created by Richard Felton Outcault, whose creations included the highly imaginative "Yellow Kid" and "Buster Brown and Tige." In 1906, the American Journal published a "Buster Brown" series meant to be cut out of the paper and heated up with a "flat-iron, gas jet or match" to reveal the full image, as were a series based on Fritz and Hans, Rudolph Dirks' "Katzenjammer Kids." Others in this category include Frederick Opper's "Happy Hooligan" and Carl ("Bunny") Schultze's "Foxy Grandpa."

Cards featuring Otto Messner's immortal comic strip "Felix the Cat" were produced both in the U.S. and in England, while cards starring an early, much more rambunctious, drinking and cigar-smoking Mickey Mouse were also made by two British firms.

Also of interest is a set of six postcards featuring Maggie and Jiggs from the George McManus "Bringing Up Father" strip, the envelope stating, "There are six rib ticklers in this package that lead to scores of side splinters." Other artists created characters specifically for cards. George Reiter Brill, for example, conceived a species of egg-shaped, Humpty Dumpty-type creatures called Ginks, shown engaged in sailing, baseball, golf, tennis and other human activities.

During the early 1900s, a New Yorker named Eugene Carr created a group of 51 postcard images of children and top-hatted men with monkey-like faces; Clarence Lawson Wood was another postcard artist partial to simians, many of his with a comical, family oriented twist featuring a "Gran'pop" monkey.

Holidays such as Valentine's Day provided a major opportunity for humor, from innocent to saucy, as did St. Patrick's Day, with countless soused Irishmen clinging to lampposts - again, for some reason, often with monkey faces. New Year's Eve provided another opportunity for drinking and hangover gags, while Easter humor tended to focus on rabbits and chicks dressed in human clothing.

Summertime brought on a barrage of humorous seaside resort jokey cards, with sexy women actually baring their ankles and arms and countless ogling situations, e.g. a couple knee deep in water, she saying, "Now look here, George, if there's any more of that submarine business, I'll smack you in the periscope."

Great Britain had an equally strong comic postcard tradition, beginning in the late 19th century and continuing through today's satirical depictions of the royal family. One of the earliest, best and most collectible of British comic postcard artists was Tom Browne, who began sketching cartoons in his early teens, going on to create several popular characters, including the duo of Weary Willie and Tired Tim. His work is distinguished by a bold and colorful poster-like style ideally suited to the comic postcard.

RESOURCE: Comic postcards are just one of the many categories included in "The Golden Age of Postcards: Early 1900s" by Benjamin H. Penniston (Collector Books), which offers up-to-the-minute values for a wide range of charming early specimens, including holiday greetings from Valentine's Day to Christmas, theater and burlesque, beaches and amusement parks, romance, marriage and honeymoons ("When you're married you get everything"), babies and animals, and war, plus some more unusual groupings, such as "My Philosophical Friends" and "My Anthropomorphic Friends."

Preceding each illustrated section is information on artists, publishers and printers.

Linda Rosenkrantz has edited Auction magazine and authored 18 books, including "Cool Names for Babies" and "The Baby Name Bible" (St. Martin's Press; www.babynamebible.com). She cannot answer letters personally.

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