The State of the State
It's Time for the Duck, the Pig, and the Cartoonist To Take a Public Stand
Tom Duck and Harry has a long history of middle-of-the-road political cartoons, starting with its first published strip in 1969. The underlying message might have been "a pox on both their houses."
Today, there's no longer a question of Right vs Left or Republican vs Democrat. It's right vs wrong; democracy vs autocracy; freedom vs enslavement; intelligence vs insanity; humanity vs depravity.
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Sadly, there is no shortage of irony, hypocrisy, fraud, corruption, or abuse oozing out of the present administration. The above cartoon may lack subtlety and artistry, but those may be expendable luxuries in today's political economy. Besides, when you work quickly in Microsoft Paint, you're willing to cut corners.
The previous state of political affairs at Cow Manor...
These two cartoons characterize the middle-of-the-road tone of Tom Duck and Harry that continued into the mid 2020s and that was echoed in many more of the strips over the years.
But the political winds are changing in Gozaimasu, if not elsewhere in Ohio, as witnessed by these recent cartoons
Artificial intelligence is just one more existential threat on the horizon. Assume it will remain so for a long time.
As long as the Eptein files remain a threat to the Administration, Trump's efforts to distract from them are an increasing threat to us all, from further capitulation to Putin on Ukraine to the federal takeover of Washington, DC, to any cockamamy suggestion that becomes reality.
Frankly, Tom Duck and Harry is not the best vehicle for political commentary, although Scott Stantis, a nationally known political cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune, has been publishing some biting critiques of the current administration in his daily strip, Prickly City. His desert denizens and friends, Carmen, a little girl, and Winslow, a coyote pup, have lately abandoned their respective conservative and liberal personas to wonder together about the destruction and confusion being sown by t
3. Inspiration: Arthur Szyk's 1941 Book of Political Cartoons, The New Order
Artistic Precision, Satire, Irony, and Racism
Pictured above is the front cover of my father's, now my, well worn copy of the 1941 volume The New Order by Arthur Szyk, a Polish Jewish artist and illustrator. It is an astounding collection of biting, incriminating political cartoons aimed at the leaders of the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan, as well as the Soviet Union during the duration of its non-aggression pact with the Nazis. The book appeared in America in July '41 prior to the December attack on Pearl Harbor, intended to alert us to the growing world-wide threat to freedom and humanity. It is a take-no-prisoners assault on the readers' complacency. With the precision and quality of Renaissance etchings, Szyk illustrates his accusations and revelations, although not without his own use of racial stereotypes in the service of combating others'. But, then, this was wartime propaganda. As we face similar threats, this time from within, we need as forceful a voice, if one lacking the racism.
From the Book's Slip Cover
"Mr. Szyk's vitriolic brush depicts with stirring realism the Dictators of Europe and Asia with their hirelings and victims. Words are not equal to the task of describing exactly what Mr. Szyk has accomplished. Field Marshal Goering, for instance, is here in the spirit as well as in the flesh. You can hear the click of the shining teeth of the Japanese militarist. The brutality and barbarism of the whole new order become a physical sensation as one turns each page."
A Sampling from The New Order
Is it time for a similar rendering of Trump demonizing immigrants?
While there are many anti-fascist allusions in his compositions, there is also his use of racial stereotyping.
WWII began in Europe in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland, which brought Great Britain and France into the war against Germany. The German Blitzkreig quickly took France out of the fight, while the British army narrowly escaped capture and destruction on the continent in its evacuation at Dunkirk.
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Up until the attack on Pearl Harbor, there was strong opposition in the United States to getting involved, although the Roosevelt Administration was providing considerable material aid to Great Britain. There was a nativist American Nazi Party in the United States, which quickly fell into disfavor after Germany declared war on the US following the establishment of our state of war with Japan.
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The Nazi leadership was artfully presented in a less than complimentary fashion...
...whereas the Allies were portrayed in a more heroic manner.
The Italian army invaded Ethiopia with far superior arms and manpower in October 1935 but didn't complete the subjugation of the country until February 1937. This cartoon shows the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie kicking Mussolini's butt while Britain, representing the European nations, looks on.
I don't recognize all the caricatures in the book, but I do know many of them. Even so, the least universal cartoons still project the author's intentions.
The back cover of the book is also worth a read.
The book was one of my inspirations for these cartoons...
However, other than the use of some of the same historic characters or motif, there is no comparing my work with Szyk's. (See both of these in My Political Cartoons.)
Click here for more of my political cartoons