As Britons last week chuckled over Punch Almanack for 1945, they saw nothing amiss: Punch, survivor of four wars and a score of Prime Ministers, was still a grinning replica of themselves. Founded in 1841 in imitation of the French Le Charivari, Punch or the London Charivari is less a funny magazine than a gently distorted mirror for Britons. Seeing his idiosyncrasies pleasantly caricatured in it, John Bull can laugh and feel satisfied—whether or not the world laughs with him.
Most of Punch's cartoons during World War II have dealt with wartime nuisances on the home front. In the Almanack, the liquor...
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