Ernest Riebe

Ernest Riebe was a German-American cartoonist and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), who was known for the slapstick humor he used in his comic strips.

On November 7, 1912, Mr. Block first appeared in the Industrial Worker, a newspaper owned by the IWW, and the comic strip was also published in Solidarity for three years.

[3] Riebe’s comic strips were anti-racist, and during the early 1920s, he and other similar cartoonists were criticized by the Ku Klux Klan, American Legion, and white-supremacist preachers and politicians.

He portrayed Mr. Block as a man "devoid of class-consciousness" who blindly believes that America is the land of opportunity, hard work pays off, and the boss looks out for the employee.

For instance, in one comic strip, the employer speaks individually with the mixed race employees and makes them work hard by pitting the workers against each other.