the first joke has to do with the word "Colonel" and the fact that he is a real current US Army colonel and not a stereotype southern colonel (think Kentucky Colonel)
the second joke is also a world war 2 joke - think Rosie the Riveter ---

obviously you are way too young to get these things;
:-)

The mystery cartoon appears to be a joke about post-service culture clash.

Note the double chevron on the soldier's arm. He's merely a corporal, just one rank above private. He's just come back from being low on the hierarchy in the midst of a war that was in its own sphere a cultural leveller (women working in industrial jobs; races mixing on the front; celebrities serving among the masses) defined by mundane routine and brutal violence.

He returns to the stereotyped cultural hierarchies of the unreconstructed South, with race-based subservience and his own reformulation as a Southern gentleman, a colonel, a rank that has a particular storied valence in the South of that era. (Think Colonel Sanders, Colonel Reb, the Colonels Sartoris in William Faulkner's books). The picture captures how returning home can be even more surreal than being at war.

My guess is that the servant addresses the returning soldier as "Cololnel" when that soldier is, in fact, an enlisted man (I'm basing this on the chevron... that is what the mark on his sleeve is called, right? Anyway, my guess is that the humor would be in the status by virtue of birth vs. status by virtue of merit turnaround.

The effects of American occupation in the South Pacific?

First one: no idea. Possibly a comment on the young age of the "Colonel?"

Second one: Welding mask seems to indicate that she's gotten a job in mechanics. The dialogue seems to indicate that it's the fat, bald man in the tuxedo (which indicates he's probably her boss (and perhaps sugar daddy). He might be her butler, but his coat and his weight seem to indicate that he's coming into the house, and that he's prosperous. Also, she calls him "Mister" rather than something like "Jeeves"). Since this is 1944, I'm guessing it's a comment on women in the workforce, and how this pretty young girl doesn't need a lecherous, fat, bald boss to support her, and so she's "letting him go."

"Colonel" Bagley is wearing corporal stripes. His deep South parents have obviously been telling everyone he was a high ranking officer.

In the South, all big shots are honorary Colonels of the state militia (Colonel Sanders being an example). The gent walking up the steps is a non-com (I see two stripes on his sleeve).

I'm not sure if the humor is:
1) The servant is instinctively calling the returning soldier "Colonel" which shocks our military friend.
2) The servant is subtly blowing a raspberry at all these Colonels by calling a real soldier "Colonel"

It's a reference to the Civil War--if you didn't see the soldier in a modern uniform, you would expect it to be a Confederate officer riding a horse or something. It might even be a reference to Gone With the Wind (I've never seen/read it, so I can't really say).

Of course, you could also read into it a second layer of social critique: a suggestion that the South is still out of step with the rest of the nation, or that white, Southern-born soldiers lose their tolerance for this nonsense once they've broadened their mind through travel. If you want to take a postmodern kind of approach.

Hi. I'm a big Peter Ano fan myself. The cartoon with the soldier might refer to the fact that the soldiers been off fighting for the freedom of others but comes back to a home where the "plantation" mentality (and with it a lack of equality for african-americans) is still acceptable. I'm not sure, I could be wrong.

Now the one with the girl is hilarious when looked at in the context of the time. It's obviously set during the war, she's just gotten a job as a welder in the ship yards (the men being at war at the time) and she doesn't need to exchange "favors" for money or presents.

I love the one with the gorilla. Arno was a great cartoonists. He was one of the giants on whose shoulders other cartoonists stand on.

Is there a date on that soldier cartoon? I suppose it's possible it's one of those "we are going to stop trying to be funny in order to celebrate/remember the end of the war" that you still see on the comics page on Veterans Day or Memorial Day now and again. I saw the book came out in 1944 so that seems unlikely, though.

It's also possible the "joke" is that the white soldier just got back from "fighting for freedom" and is greeted by what's essentially an indentured servant and another poor black guy out in the field working? I don't know Arno's personal politics, but that's about the only "joke" I can get out of it.

I think it's a gag on the "Kentucky Colonel" kind of Colonel, the white-suit-and-string-tie-wearing, mint-julep-sipping Southern patrician. The "Colonel" who is being welcomed home is wearing Corporal's stripes. Not terribly funny, but I think that's the joke.

I'll take a guess. My first instinct was to read the dialogue line (is there a better term for this "line under single panel gag strip"? "Punchline" always seems too much of an assumption - sometimes the punchline of the joke is the visual, the set-up coming from the *whatever you call it* line. Anyway). But all the dialogue line seems to do is underscore the "mammyesque minstrel" look of the butler. I thought the gardener figure might also be a clue, as he's wearing a hat similar to an asian rice-paddy farmer.

I'd guess (and I have no idea if this idea is even possible as an intention at the time it was published) it's a commentary on a returning veteran who fought overseas for other's right to be free coming straight into the face of a lack of freedom at home. Is that possible in 1944 - not as a concept but as a concept for a punchline gag cartoon in a popular mag? It's not knee-slapping hilarious, more dry and ironic. If that was the intention, I'm sure many people at the time were scratching their heads as well.

It reminds me of a line from a SIMPSONS episode a few years ago during a flashback to WWII - "I wish this war was over so we could get back home and sloooowly dole out freedom to blacks" (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the jist).

Anyway, that's my guess

the joke is 'He's a non-com, not called "sir"'. Very lame.

The reason you don't recognize the humor here is that, thankfully, we've moved on a bit. There was a pre-60's common stereotypical trope in popular culture that all Southern antebellum servants addressed their masters as "Colonel", regardless of whether or not the addressee actually had a military rank. As in "Your dinner is comin' right up, Colonel"! The irony here is that the returning Master of the House only made to Corporal (see the sleeve stripes).

Ha. Ha.

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

For the record, I *do* understand the last two gags - I just included them because I thought they were, respectively, beautifully drawn and quite funny.

The gag is: The soldier is carrying his own luggage!
The sexy girl is wearing the Rosie the Riveter welding helmet to protect her from the disgusting advances of the sugar daddy.