Here's a precursor to the postmasculine world.  From Jugend, 1897.

Here's a precursor to the steady flow of demonic imagery on Tumblr.  From Jugend, 1897.

Mark Pahlow, founder of Archie McPhee, writes: "Thanks for your hard work of unearthing all the great material you post.  You are a saint, albeit from the netherworld."

Decades before The Flying Nun, there were the flying priests.  From Jugend, 1903.

You've heard of oldschool DJing.  Here's 1929-style.  From Die Bühne.

Here's a precursor to Cruella de Vil, over half a century before Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians.  From Jugend, 1900.

Here's a precursor to Chariots of the Gods: Tutankhamen's flying machine.  From Die Bühne, 1925.

Here's a precursor to the "Beating Heart" ghost bride in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion attic.  From Jugend, 1896.

Here's a precursor to the "Gourmet Night" episode of Fawlty Towers, in which hapless Spanish waiter Manuel stalls for time when the duck entrée is extraordinarily late.  From Die Bühne, 1934.

Here's a precursor to Carl Sandburg's Potato Face Blind Man from Rootabaga Stories.  It's "A potato faced man," 1886.

Here's a precursor to the Ford Mercury automobile, ten years before it debuted.  From Die Bühne, 1928.  (Indeed, it's technically Lohengrin and not Mercury thanking Mr. Ford for the ride, but that winged hat!)

A precursor to the The Fly, here's Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome as a mosquito.  Pen drawing by Fred Reynolds, c. 1880.

Here's a precursor to "silent disco" headphone parties.  From Die Bühne, 1927.

Here's a precursor to Lily Tomlin's character Edith Ann, from Mocca, 1931.

You've seen Boy George's frocks made of tabloid headlines about him.  Here's a precursor: a postcard by Arthur Thiele, date uncertain.

Here's a precursor to Marilyn Monroe standing on that air vent.  From Pick Me Up, 1895.

Here's a precursor to Gary Oldman as Dracula in the Coppola film.  From Droll Stories Collected From the Abbeys of Touraine, illustrated by Gustave Doré, 1907.

Here's a precursor to the Atkins diet.  This ice cream vending machine has been marked "Permanently out of order."  From Hunter College's Wistarion yearbook, 1963.