(via) Documentary photographer and filmmaker Richard Tilney-Bassett explains the bizarre but fascinating intersection of satire and cartography at the zenith of the British Empire…

Serio-Comic Maps were a genre of satirical cartography popular between the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lead up to World War 1, which characterised nations with key figures or creatures that assumed the form of their respective countries while also reflecting their national identities and agendas.