[3] Unable to make a living from his art in Vienna he joined a theatrical troupe as a scene painter and then as a comedian, traveling with them in the Tyrol and Italy.

[5] After the death of his wife in 1870,[4] Keppler married Pauline Pfau in 1871, the union producing three children, Udo, Irma and Olga.

In September 1876 he and fellow Frank Leslie employee Adolph Schwarzmann resurrected Puck for the New York German-American audience and then introduced an English-language version the following year.

Keppler's main delight was in producing cartoons criticizing President Ulysses S. Grant, and the political corruption of his administration.

Puck did not shy away from criticism of the administration and by influencing the perceptions of the voting public, certainly altered the course of American political history.

When his workload became too much, he made use of several talented artists including Frederick Burr Opper, James A. Wales, Bernhard Gillam, Eugene Zimmerman, C. J. Taylor, and others.