Cartoonist Otto Soglows is best known for his king, in his strip The Little King. The Little King was Soglows major work along with a number of New Yorker and other magazine gag cartoons. His king was the antithesis of the stereotype of real-life monarchs in that he was extremely kind and gentle, jovially playful, and very democratic. An uncomplicated man, the king, take away the royal robe and crown, could have passed for the fellow down the street.

Without being abrasive, or even seemingly conscious of it, Soglows king tweaked the noses of pompous uppity-ups around him, doing the simplest, most unexpected, and most nonsensical things, rather than the most ceremonial. In one story, the king gets up from his luxurious bed, traverses ...