The Story of a Foolish Man / The Story of a Wise Man

A single-issue comic from 1880, The Story of a Foolish Man / The Story of a Wise Man was produced by the Donaldson Brothers for the Rising Sun Stove Polish company—a piece of early advertising ephemera that doubled as a moral fable. Published in the late 19th century, it stands as a curious artifact of the era when businesses used sequential art to sell products, with the Donaldson Brothers handling both the writing and illustration. Its significance lies in its place as a very early example of promotional comics, predating the rise of the newspaper comic strip and offering a glimpse into the commercial origins of the medium.