From The Harvard Lampoon, 1891.

"It's a gay life—NOT!"  From Pearson's, 1910.

Here's Despair from Ida Dalton and Other Stories by Parker W. Freeland, 1877.

From The Mystics by Katherine Cecil Thurston, 1907.

"The cock that was feeling dicky.  'What's the use of anything, anyway.  Nothing but an egg yesterday, and a feather-duster tomorrow.'"  From The Sketch, 1909.

Blame yourself.  From Popular Mechanics, 1923.

"The silver chord," from Once a Week, 1860.

"Everything had gone wrong," from Wayside Tales, 1906.

"Alone with despair," from Once a Week, 1874.

"The mistaken ghost."  From Once a Week, 1867.

From Die Muskete, 1916.

"[continues without heeding her.]"  From Drawing-Room Plays, selected and adapted from the French by Lady Adelaide Cadogan and illustrated by E. L. Shute, 1888.

From Out and About by J. Hain Friswell, 1860.

"What's the use?"  From the North Carolina Christian Advocate, 1912.

A duck-headed butler opening the door for a Poe-esque gentleman?  Check.  (By the way, that's a precursor to David Lynch's commercial for the Sony Playstation, in which a duck says, "Welcome to the 'third place.'")  A faceless figure surrounded by disembodied cackling faces?  Check.  A crow in a jacket standing on a meditative sheep while an anthropomorphic dice cup spills and kills an innocent bystander?  Check.  A skeleton holding the Ace of Hearts?  Check.  Edward Gorey-esque despair on a settee?  Check.  Granted, the figure blowing his head off does seem rather too much.  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1884.