That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for November 08, 2023

Tired of being sweeper, Ernest looked for an opportunity to break into journalism.

/// Ginger paperboy wizard is yelling,

“Get today’s Daily Prophet.” He’s selling

them for only two sickles,

(that’s about sixteen nickels).

“A new Wizarding War, it’s foretelling!”

(Apologies to readers unfamiliar with the Harry Potter books or movies.)

Certs..:two…two…two mints in one!

“It’s two coins extra if you want see the page 6 girl.”

“To the average observer it appears that the bundle of newsprint was being protect by the scrap of material wrapped around it from the elements. But those, as it is said colloquially ‘in the know’, know the reason why it is being protected as we are witnessing before us as a customer tries in bidding for one but whose offer is being rejected by the seller. Shall he succeed with another offer?”

“If you hide the date with your hand, they won’t realize they’re buying yesterday’s paper”.

“Now swear to me this copy of ‘Saucy Ankles’ is really for your adult Uncle!”

“The price is a tuppence – no less !”/

Said the lad in the ragged dress./

“But the news is so bad,”/

Said the other poor lad,/

“That you really should sell it for less..”

Listen kid, I only find a new stash under my dad’s side of the bed every couple of weeks so the price has increased.

The red-shirted kid is a young Mike Lindell. He’s buying the newspapers wholesale & reselling as pillows, at a steep markup

The lead up to the Newsboys’ strike of 1899

The title of this one is, “Luck in a Moment”. Anybody get it?

Two? It’s not even worth the one I’m offering. I sweep up after the horses in the street, so I know what kind of news your printing in that rag.

“The rebroadcast fee is two shillings. No less!”

Young Harry Potter negotiates the purchase of fish wrappers.

The little boy accidentally used his Dad’s newspaper as tp. If he doesn’t get a replacement by the time the coffee’s ready, he’s toast.

The Great Quidditch Fixing Scandal of 1874!

“I tell you, not two minutes ago the witch was standing here, just like you are now, and the downpour happened. Give me two bits and I’ll tell you the whole story.”

Luck in a Moment: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:1874 in London" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found and once there find the text string Luck, and click its link for info and links that point to more info about this roughly B4 papersize painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3218 (November 8, 2023) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger, if you trim what’s after .png from the URL). I have added a comment there (awaiting Mr. Melcher’s approval) pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 2 works by him have been used here, the July 22, 2016, strip being the prior. GoComics has deactivated the hyperlinks and removed the new lines in my comment there; but, perhaps the text remains informative.

little joey found a pile of dog poop, but no one wanted to take it from him, underneath was shiny quarters

Nuthin’s as infernal as the bloody Wall Street Journal in the mor-ornin’ …

“Luck in a Moment,” 1874

“… and if you buy these Amway products I have here I swear you’ll make twice as much re-selling them as you make sweeping, or my name ain’t Bob Ponzi!