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.
A Threefold Approach...
Part 1 - My Political Cartoons [49 as of 11/13/25]
Sadly, there is no shortage of irony, hypocrisy, fraud, corruption, or abuse spewing forth from the present administration. My cartoons may lack subtlety and artistry, but those may be expendable luxuries in today's political economy.
Part 2 - Tom and Harry's Resistance in Gozaimasu, Ohio
The political winds are slowly changing in Gozaimasu, if not elsewhere in Ohio.
Part 3 - Inspration: Arthur Szyk's 1941 Political Cartoons
Part 3 - Inspration: Arthur Szyk's 1941 Political Cartoons
The New Order, by Arthur Szyk, a Polish Jewish artist and illustrator, is an astounding collection of biting, incriminating political cartoons aimed at the leaders of the Axis powers. It was published here prior to the US's entry into WWII but can still serve as an inspiration for those struggling against today's new/old tyranny.
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Artistic Precision, Satire, Irony, and Racism
This is the front cover of my father's, now my, well worn copy of The New Order. The Soviet Union, during the duration of its non-aggression pact with the Nazis, is pilloried along with the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan. The book appeared in America in July 1941 prior to the December attack on Pearl Harbor, intended to alert us to the growing world-wide existential 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 and other minorities, not to mention Democrats?
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