No Fool Like an Old Fool

It's Spoofback Saturday and April Fool's Eve to boot, so let's take a break from wallowing in the centennial of World War I just a bit.

This is not a Mike Peters cartoon. It's a parody I drew for my college newspaper's mock issue in 1979. In addition to scribblings by resident St. Olaf cartoonists, the Manitou Messenger ran Mike Peters's cartoons distributed by College Press Service. They were more dependable than my editorial cartoons were; but as irrepressible as Mr. Peters was and is, he didn't send us material for the parody issue in which we student journalists blew off steam.

So I mimicked his style as best I could in a cartoon buttressing up one of the conceits of that year's parody issue: that there had been some sort of nuclear accident involving Ytterboe Hall, a 79-year-old red brick dormitory that, in reality, the school administration wanted to tear down (over the objection of its residents and our "Keep Ytt Up" slogan. Ytt would be demolished a few years after I graduated, but St. Olaf eventually put the Ytterboe name on a new building more in keeping with the campus's limestone motif.)

One of my other Mike Peters parodies didn't involve campus issues at all. Ronald Reagan's first Secretary of State Al Haig was the John Bolton of the day, famously declaring after the president's attempted assassination by John Hinckley, "I am in charge!" I think, however, that the caption beneath this cartoon must have been copied from a real Mike Peters cartoon, because I don't remember inking it. I don't have the original of this cartoon, and it was a long time ago, so I could be wrong. On the other hand, I wasted a lot of time mimicking halftone with a Bic pen and a ruler on these things; the forgery of Peters's print style in the caption, if that's what it is, is considerably more true to Peters's handwriting than that of the word "France" on the map.

But how does one parody one's own work?

For one thing, I answered any reader who had told me "I don't get it" by drawing cartoons so impossibly dense, inside, and disjointed that nobody could possibly "get it." Except for Idi Amin (referencing an earlier cartoon that had him hiding out in the utility tunnels beneath the campus), most of the characters in the above cartoon were campus personages. And just to be as obscure as possible, Gwenellda's time-traveling friend was a character from The Uglies, a Manitou Messenger cartoon by L.K. Hanson, dating from a decade before any of us students had come to campus.

Having a time-traveling character in my cartoon would have been more impressive if I had somehow known to include the work of 2018 Herb Block Award winner Ward Sutton, who drew for the Messenger eight years later than I had.

But if I had had that power to see into the future, I wouldn't have been so cocksure that I'd never need to know Thing One about computers. And I might have made it to the Messenger's staff photo on time senior year.

For the UW-Parkside Ranger (renamed the Stranger) in 1984, I depicted the swearing in of the unnamed police detective in the "Funny Paper Caper" I was drawing that year as the 37th president of the United States (with a character from fellow Ranger cartoonist John Kovalic's "Wild Life" as Veep).

Various political figures and a few Ranger staffers populate most of the rest of the cartoon.

But there's more to a parody newspaper than cartoons. Photo editors liked to get in on the laughs, too. Holland Hall at my alma mater is blessed with the most massive urinals you have ever seen in your life, so some enterprising Messenger staffer depicted the school track team posing inside one.

Other memorable photos I remember involved an enormous abstract iron art piece called "The Spirit Also Helpeth Us" by Dorothy Berge (no relation as far as I've ever been able to tell), depicted in various situations such as addressing a convocation in Boe Memorial Chapel. Or gigantic mutant squirrels menacing the campus due to that nuclear leak in Ytterboe.

And in those days, they did it all without PhotoShop.

So did I, taking a file photo from 1955 that appeared to show Ronald Reagan talking to an empty space, and using it to illustrate a bogus story about Basil Wraithbone, a washed-up actor who used to be one of the Ghostly Trio on "Casper, the Friendly Ghost."

If PhotoShop had been around in those days, and if I had had the foresight not to be so snooty about eschewing computers, I could have made it so that you could still see the empty space behind Mr. Wraithbone.

That story is too long to include here in full; so here's another bit of Fake News I wrote.

It's too long, too, but short enough for today's post, and I got to use a couple names I picked up in Medieval History class.

Because being able to namecheck Frankish kings seemed so much more useful back then than getting into the vanguard of the computer revolution.

Q Toon: Military Cis-ipline

The Corrupt Trump Administration continues its war against transgender individuals who, unlike the President and his new National Security Advisor, volunteer for military service in the defense of their country.

Last Friday night, the administration released two documents detailing Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military. The first was a memo that stated "transgender persons with a history of diagnosis of gender dysphoria – individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery – are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances." The second document, titled, "Department of Defense Report and Recommendations on Military Service by Transgender Persons," contains specific policy recommendations regarding trans individuals serving in the military, but states that the department has concluded "accommodating gender transition could impair unit readiness, undermine unit cohesion, and lead to disproportionate costs." Those are the same arguments opponents gave nearly a decade ago when the military's anti-gay "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was reviewed before it was repealed by Congress.

This policy comes in contradiction to initial recommendations by its own Defense Secretary, Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis and a recent Rand Corporation study:

Previous Integration Efforts and the Experiences of Foreign Militaries Indicate a Minimal Likely Impact on Force Readiness
The limited research on the effects of foreign military policies indicates little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness. Commanders noted that the policies had benefits for all service members by creating a more inclusive and diverse force.
Policy changes to open more roles to women and to allow gay and lesbian personnel to serve openly in the U.S. military have similarly had no significant effect on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness. 

It's difficult to see what's behind the Corrupt Trump Administration's determination to push transgender volunteers out of the U.S. military. It doesn't benefit Trump Family Incorporated financially, or bring jobs back to Coal Country. Nor can I imagine that some transgender soldier beat out Don Jr., Eric or Ivanka for a coveted post at Fort Bragg.

Perhaps Don Sr. had a dalliance abruptly cut short when he discovered why Lola walked like a woman but talked like a man. Or maybe it's just another instance of undoing Obama administration policies for the sake of undoing Obama administration policies.

But more likely, the force behind the anti-transgender documents comes from Vice President Mike Pence and his cadre of right-wing religious zealots.

According to multiple sources, Vice President Mike Pence played a leading role in the creation of this report, along with Ryan Anderson, an anti-trans activist, and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ lobbying group. Mattis actually supports open transgender service, but he was effectively overruled by Pence, and chose not to spend his limited political capital further defending trans troops. In a memo released on Friday, Mattis encouraged Trump to ban transgender people from enlisting in the military, and to discharge those service members who wish to transition. Trump has now formally adopted these suggestions.

So, after being featured in one of my cartoons just last week, Mr. Pence is on track to break last year's record number of Vice Presidential appearances in Berge cartoons. We're at four times so far, and it's only March.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Sometimes, there seems to be a dearth of news stories with any LGBTQ angle to them, and I have to struggle to find some topic worth drawing a cartoon about.

This is not one of those times.

And still I end up drawing Our Mercurial President on vacation.

The Sun Also Rises

Discussion of World War I rarely mentions the Asian theater of the conflict; a few months ago, I noted the British conquest of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire, and posted a few cartoons about Japan's and China's declarations of war before that.

From the beginning of the war, Japan had expressed an interest in siding with the Entente powers in exchange for being promised Germany's Pacific territories; Japan declared war on Germany on August 23, 1914. The Imperial Navy handily seized the Mariana, Caroline, and Marshall Islands; after a three-month siege, Germany surrendered Tsingtao, China to Japan as well.

The U.S. entry into the war in 1917 made it by extension an ally of Japan, although up to then the two countries were actively competing to establish influence in China and the Pacific. To reduce tensions between them, the two countries signed the Lansing–Ishii Agreement in November of 1917.

"Schöne Seelen Finden Sich—" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatch, Berlin, October 14, 1917.

Arthur Johnson's cartoon riffs on an aphorism about beautiful souls finding themselves on sea and on land, and pairs it with two lines from the sonnet "Wie Es So Geht" ("How It Works").

Johnson, whose father was American, was born in Germany in 1878 and raised there by his mother. Leaning heavily on grotesque caricatures of Germany's adversaries, he had a lot to say about the Entente's embrace of Japan.

"Ex Oriente Luchs" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatch, Berlin, March 17, 1918

This time, Johnson's cartoon rests on a pun on "Ex Oriente Lux" ("Light from the East"), exchanging the Latin "Lux" for the German "Luchs." It's a shame that Kladderadatch didn't spring for red ink to color that Japanese rising sun on the lynx's belly; with yellow ink, it looks more like a daisy.

Russia's surrender to Germany at Brest-Litovsk in March, 1918 was in violation of a 1916 treaty between Russia and Japan promising that neither would sign a separate peace with Germany. Even before the Brest-Litovsk treaty was signed, Japan and the United States mobilized a joint invasion of Siberia to bolster the anti-Bolshevik White Army. The Imperial Japanese Army initially planned to send more than 70,000 troops to occupy Siberia as far west as Lake Baikal.

"Verspekuliert" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatch, Berlin, April 7, 1918

I'm less confident in my translation here. I found one source that says that "Schöne Pleite!" is the equivalent of a sarcastic "Nice one!" in English, but some of the words in the rest of the dialogue seem to baffle Google Translate. I suppose that Johnson might be mimicking an American or British accent, much as English-language cartoonists misspell words to indicate a German accent. (You can imagine, for instance, that while an English reader of The Katzenjammer Kids would recognize "vot" as "what" in a German accent, Google Translate would probably ask "Meinst du 'vote'?")

"Der Held des Ostens" by Ragnvald Blix in Simplicissimus, Munich, April 2, 1918

Johnson was not the only German cartoonist casting aspersions on the Entente's alliance with Japan. Here's the fifth panel of a cartoon excerpted here last Saturday

Detail of "Ostereier" by Arpad Schmidhammer, in Jugend, Berlin, March 16, 1918

Wilson's egg is labeled "Japanese Selflessness," and I know of no allegations that the Japanese used weaponized gas in World War I. Germany had resumed gas attacks at this point; perhaps Herr Schmidhammer was trying to suggest an "everybody does it" defense.

"Netze Über Sibirien" by Carl Olaf Petersen in Simplicissimus, Munich, April 26, 1918

I ought to present a Japanese view of some of these events, but I have to confess that I'm practically fluent in German compared to my grasp of Japanese. But here's a Japanese cartoon anyway.

From Osaka Puck, Osaka, possibly November, 1917

I've posted cartoons dating from before America's entrance to the war warning of the Yellow Peril; but now that the U.S. and Japan were, so to speak, in the trenches together, cheerleading was the order of the day. Omaha's Spencer depicts the Lansing–Ishii Agreement as a love affair in much less lurid manner than Herr Johnson, and Dayton's Stinson has a different view of Ex Oriente Lux.

"The Love Feast" by Guy Spencer in Omaha World-Herald, about November, 1917

"Darkening the Rising Sun" by Homer Stinson in Dayton News, about March, 1918

San Francisco's Bronstrup applauds Japan's attack on Russia from behind.

"Wilhelm in the Bear's Den" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, about March, 1918

On the other hand, this Polish-American cartoonist appears to have strong reservations about Japan's intentions. Perhaps the Committee on Public Information Bureau of Cartoons (yes, that was a real thing) didn't get the memo translated for him in time.

"Między Dwoma Złymi" by Fosliko in Motyl, New York, April, 1918

The Chicago Tribune's Carey Orr also recommended caution.

"They'll Need a Chaperon" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, March 3, 1918

Q Toon: Listen Graciously Before Talking

In spite of yesterday's cartoon looking forward to April Fools' Day, I'm not quite done with St. Patrick's Day issues.

Having Irish Prime Ministers over here in the U.S. for St. Patrick's Day is a tradition now; I guess there's not so much demand for them to be in Ireland for the holiday. They usually get to be marshal of an American St. Paddy's Day parade, then to pay a courtesy call on the Vice President.

Generally, this is done the morning before the Taoiseach meets the US President in the Oval Office.
Breaking from tradition this year, Varadkar will attend the vice president’s residence on Friday morning, the day after meeting Donald Trump in the White House.

The media were allowed in to document last year's meeting between Mike Pence and then-P.M. Enda Kenny, but were shut out of this year's tête-à-tête with current Teoiseach Leo Varadkar.

As reported by the Indianapolis Star, having the meeting closed to the press was at the Vice President's request.

Pence, who is of Irish descent, and his wife, Karen, spoke to the media at last year's festivities, where Pence expressed his excitement over being able to invite a "special guest to the White House" —  in reference to Kenny.
But it's different this year — and Varadkar's comments in recent days to the media may be a reason why.
When asked whether he would talk to Pence about the vice president's stance on gay-conversion therapy, Varadkar told an Irish publication, TheJournal.ie, on Wednesday that if given the chance he would talk about "the wider issue" of gay rights. 

As I noted the other day, Varadkar is Ireland's first openly gay Teoiseach, as well as its first of Indian descent, and, at 38 when elected, the youngest to hold the title. (There have been younger Prime Ministers, but a "Teoiseach" is chief executive and head of government in addition to being P.M. Besides the Teoiseach, there's also a President of Ireland, who is the head of state, which is about as confusing to us eachtrannaigh as the pronunciation of "teoiseach" is.)

While serving in Kenny's cabinet as Minister for Health, however, Varadkar told RTÉ Radio, "I'm not a half-Indian politician, or a doctor politician or a gay politician for that matter. It's just part of who I am; it doesn't define me; it is part of my character, I suppose."

The media were present for Varadkar's Thursday meeting with Mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump, and at a luncheon with congressional leaders. At those events, trade, taxes, immigration and Guinness defined the main topics of conversation. He must have exhausted other parts of his character during the conclave with Mr. Pence.

🐇

I had about three quarters of this cartoon inked, including the arm wearing Pence's watch, when John Oliver started talking about his and the Vice President's new books about the Second Bunny on Last Week Tonight. Happily, the pose already drawn accommodated the addition of a rabbit; and there was still time to change the dialogue balloon that was to have said "Leprechauns' Golden Buried Treasure."

At Sunrise They Went to the Toon

The Christian season of Lent is scheduled peculiarly on Western Orthodox calendars this year. Ash Wednesday coincided with Valentine's Day, as you recall; and Easter falls on April Fools' Day.

So in the spirit of April 1, 2018, I give you The Greatest Prank Ever Pulled:

Incidentally, the next time this happens will be in 2029, then 2040.

These things cycle in patterns, by the way. Almost every time Easter falls on April 1, it falls on April 21 the following year (not the latest date on which it can fall, but close to it). There have been exceptions, as in 1804 and 1923, but you can count on this much of the pattern to continue faithfully for the next few centuries.

EnviroStewardship: Spring To-Do List

It's time once again for Dad's monthly Environmental Stewardship column:

Now that spring has officially arrived (and it has even felt like spring a couple of days) it is time to do those things that didn’t get done last fall.

Like starting a compost pile somewhere in a corner of the yard. All that organic material that is raked or swept up in the yard and the plant-based materials from the kitchen can be composted to obtain rich, black soil for the garden and lawn. Nature does most of the work — it is called rotting — with just a little bit of help in turning the pile occasionally.

The only animal-based material that I throw into my compost pile are egg shells, trying to counteract the acid from the oak leaves, so there is never an odor problem. Coffee grounds, tea bags, banana and orange peels, moldy bread and discarded outer cabbage and lettuce leaves all make excellent compost.

If you had water condensing on your windows last winter, or even some frost on the inside on some chilly mornings, you should consider replacing those windows with double- or triple-glazed windows. The savings in your burning of fossil fuels and increased comfort will pay for the upgrade quite quickly.

Another environmental stewardship and energy saving change is to increase the thickness of insulation in your attic to an R-value of 38 for a gas or oil  fueled home and 50 for those heating with electricity. These two changes are good illustrations of the close relationship between economy and ecology.

Soon, many home owners will be fertilizing their lawns. Shouldn’t this year be the time that you have your soil tested (by someone other than the company trying to sell you fertilizer) to see if you really need all that nitrogen and potassium?

By state law, the phosphorus has generally been removed from lawn fertilizers in order to protect our rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands. Excess nitrogen fertilizer can wash off into the gutters and streams adding to the algae blooms. Recent studies in California have shown that excess nitrogen fertilizer can add to the nitrogen oxides (NOX) that add to the smog and non-conforming air quality. The California study showed that NOX from fertilizing exceeded that from automobiles in some areas. These were in heavily agricultural areas, but here in Wisconsin it has been shown that residential fertilizing is generally at a higher rate per acre than agricultural.

Also, if you didn’t build a rain garden or at least buy a rain barrel or two last fall, this spring may well be the time to do so. We used to think that we should get rain water off the yard as fast as possible; then turn on the sprinkler to keep the lawn green. We now know that it is best, not only for our lawns but for our streams, to have that rain water soak in as much as possible. Rain gardens do just that, directing the water from the downspouts to a depression in the yard maybe lined with stones and filled with deep rooted, native wetland species. Several organizations in the area, such as Root-Pike WIN, will assess your yard for its rain garden potential and give instructions on how to proceed.

In addition to obtaining native species for the rain garden, one should consider native species of shrubs, forbs and trees for some or all spring planting. Our native birds, insects and other life will appreciate it, and so will you when you realize how much less work they are to maintain once established. The DNR has long lists of native species for our area and groups such as “Wild Ones” have such plants for sale.

I am sure that if you are like me, there were other jobs, activities or purchases that didn’t get done last fall. We can all be better environmental stewards this spring.

This Week's Sneak Peek

There's a special challenge in drawing somebody for the first time. What is the general shape of the face? Which features call for exaggeration, and which call for minimization? Are there any photos on line showing him or her from the side or with a facial expression close to the one I need for the cartoon? Should I provide other clues?

If you're still wondering who this is, tune back in on Thursday.

Back to the Irish

With St. Patrick's Day falling on a Sathairnback Saturday this year, how could I not take a moment to catch up on events of the Emerald Isle in World War I?

"The Non-Stop Car" by Bernard Partridge in Punch, London, probably 1917

When last we checked in on Irish events, the British had executed Sir Roger Casement for his involvement in running weapons from Germany in support of the Easter Rising of 1916. Over the next couple of years, Britain released hundreds of other prisoners convicted for participating in that revolt, as a concession toward resumption of talks for Irish Home Rule.

"Defiance - Before and Aft" by Archibald Chapin in St. Louis Republic, March, 1918

On April 9, 1918, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George announced that his government was willing to grant Home Rule to Ireland, provided that the Irish institute universal male conscription (we call it "the draft" nowadays), sending its soldiers to fight alongside Entente forces. The Irish independence party, Sinn Fein, its ranks swelled by those released prisoners, rejected Lloyd George's terms and called for a general strike on April 22.

"A Bad Time for a Family Row" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1918

Rioting ensued with Sinn Fein and Irish Volunteer activists battling the Royal Irish Constabulary and British Army. Again, hundreds of republicans were arrested over the next several months, charged with conspiring with Germany. Still more were detained under legislation banning public parades.

"Germany's Last Reserves" by George E. Studdy in Passing Show, London, April, 1918

Indeed, Germany was all too happy to cheer on rebellion against England in Ireland...

"Die Wehrpflicht in Irland," unsigned, in Ulk, Berlin, May 24, 1918

...as well as in any other quarters of the empire upon which the sun had yet to set. One presumes that German-American cartoonist Arthur Johnson believed the colonized peoples of Burundi, Cameroon, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Togo had submitted freely to their German overlords.

Wenn... die Völker Selbstbestimmen Könnten" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, March 3, 1918

From the Berlin liberal magazine Jugend, there is this first panel of a seven-panel cartoon depicting Entente leaders disappointed in their Easter eggs.

Detail from "Ostereier" by Arpad Schmidhammer in Jugend, Munich, March 25, 1918

I did try to find some Irish point of view to include among today's cartoons, but I imagine the British censors weren't particularly keen to have Them Damn Pictures further stirring up Republican sentiment. This American cartoon by Daniel Fitzpatrick will have to do.

"The Mirage" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, probably 1917

Or perhaps this uncredited cartoon from Punch. I've commented before on how some cartoons don't translate well, and this time the foreign language is British. Either this cartoon is sympathetic to the Irish people, or it's an example of incredibly dry British wit desiccated beyond all hope of rehydration.

"In Suspense" in Punch, London, March or April, 1918

Q Toon: Parade Downgrade

The LGBTQAIXYZ community's fight to be included in St. Patrick's Day parades goes back longer than that unwieldy acronym does. For the most part, we seem to have worn down the resistance.

But not everywhere. Organizers of the Staten Island march barred the island's Pride Center from their parade last week, reportedly adding that even the Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar (who is openly gay) would not be allowed in their event if he displayed any "visual association with LGBT identity."

So let's just posit that the Staten Island parade is not among "all of the best St. Patrick's Day parades."

In Dublin, Galway, Cork and other Irish cities, gay and lesbian groups march in St. Patrick’s Day events without incident. Chicago, which has a large Irish Catholic population, has allowed gay groups since the mid-1990s. “Our city realized a long time ago that we have so much more in common than apart,” says Tom Tunney, Chicago’s first openly gay alderman. “We’re a city of cultures, and the LGBT community is a part of it.”

Boston's St. Pat's organizers allowed an LGBTQ group to parade with them in 2014, 2015, and 2016, only to ban them again last year. But after the resulting backlash, they are letting the LGBTQ marchers back in this year.

New York's Fifth Street parade banned LGBTQ participation until 2015, when they granted a permit to Out@NBCUniversal, the LGBTQ resource group of the network televising their parade. They were joined by the Lavender and Green Alliance the following year, thanks to pressure from Guinness, Sam Adams and Heineken. (And from Mayor DiBlasio, too, but I don't need to tell you whether beer or a politician is more important to St. Patrick's Day festivities.)

Now, I don't know for sure that, if mercurial American President Trump's dream of tanks and missiles parading down Pennsylvania Avenue comes to fruition, there won't be some group of LGBTQ soldiers or veterans demanding a float of their own.

I wasn't really privy to the last Homosexual Agenda Steering Cabal meeting. And if I were, I couldn't tell you.

This Week's Sneak Peek

I could show you the rest of the cartoon, but then it wouldn't be top secret, would it?

My Lack of God! It's Trotsky!

If there is any one single biggest loser to be found in the Brest-Litovsk treaty ending Russian involvement in World War I, it is the Bolsheviks' chief negotiator, Leon Trotsky.

"Heute rot..." by P.H. in Ulk, Berlin, March 1, 1918

During negotiations, Germany's peace terms had included creating German-allied independent states in Poland and the Baltics, up to then parts of the Russian empire. Trotsky responded by suspending negotiations and recommending to Vladimir Lenin that Russia withdraw its forces from the fighting without signing a peace treaty: an approach he labeled "neither war nor peace"— "Ни война, ни мир." He fully expected that if he waited long enough, the German and Austrian working class and soldiers, weary of war, would rise up against their rulers just as the Russian people had.

"Brest-Litovsk" by Zislin in Le Rire, Paris, February 2, 1918

But Ukraine signed its Brest-Litovsk treaty with the Central Powers on February 9, 1918, and Germany renewed military action against Russia nine days later, ramping up the pressure on Russia to accept German terms for peace.

"Der Trotzkibengel und die Wandernde Glocke" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatch, Berlin, February 24, 1918 

German-American cartoonist Arthur Johnson's cartoon in Kladderadatch is based on a Goethe poem, "The Wandering Bell," about a boy who fails to heed his mother's admonition to go to church when the steeple bell rings, only to have the bell literally follow him everywhere until he changes his ways.

"Die Heimkehr vom Markt im Osten" by Richter in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, March 17, 1918

Russia signed the treaty on March 3, and ratified it on March 15. In addition to its Baltic losses, Russia recognized the independence of Ukraine, Georgia, and Finland and ceded territories to the Ottoman Empire that are now in easternmost Turkey— all told, ceding away some 1 million square miles of Russia's former territory; a third of its population or around 55 million people; a majority of its coal, oil and iron stores; and much of its industry.

"Trotsky Advances..." by Louis Raemaekers for Bell Syndicate, by March 13, 1918

As vilified in the Entente press as he had been in Germany's, Trotsky was spared the wrath of Russian cartoonists only because Russian cartoonists were not in the habit of drawing real, living domestic politicians in their cartoons. Dead people were fair game, but real people could send your ass off to the gulag. Russian cartoons throughout the Soviet era tended to limit themselves to archetypes and characters from folk tales.

"They Looked at the Little Bird" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Sun, March, 1918

Abroad, the most charitable view of Trotsky and, in Cy Hungerford's cartoon, Vladimir Lenin, was that they were unwitting, inexperienced buffoons, easily taken advantage of by the wily, expansionist Kaiser.

"Bear Steaks" by Bob Satterfield, by March 2, 1918

With his negotiating strategy thoroughly discredited, Trotsky resigned as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

"Trotsky's Good-Bye" by Percy H. "Poy" Fearon in London Evening News, March, 1918

Whether they thought of Trotsky as villain or fool, the general consensus of Entente cartoonists was that Russia had suffered an existential disaster of biblical proportions.

"Judas Bolchevik" by Nob in Le Rire, Paris, March 30, 1918

"Undertaken in the Name of Humanity" by C.R. McAuley in New York World, by March 7, 1918

The one outlier in its views on Russia's fate that I've come across is this drawing in the left-wing L'Asino of Rome, which appears to cast the Bolsheviks as David to Germany's Goliath. Since I haven't been able to locate the issue of L'Asino in which this cartoon first appeared, it is possible that it was drawn before the outcome of the Brest-Litovsk negotiations had been settled.

"Il Duello Tedesco-Bolscevico" (by Gabrieli "Rata Langa" Galanta?) in L'Asino, Rome, February or March, 1918

Certainly the editors of the Chicago Tribune, by the time they ran this cartoon on March 9, knew that David was not emerging from this duel with his (and Goliath's) head held high.

Yet even on the drawing boards of Munich's Simplicissimus there could be found some sympathy for Germany's vanquished foe. "Old metal bought [here]" reads the sign.

"Russischer Abendfriede" by C.O. Petersen in Simplicissimus, March 26, 1918

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune finds the silver lining limning the "Russian catastrophe," now that the price of peace with Germany was on display for all to see.

"A Bad Jolt" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, March 19, 1918

Wow, cars must've been a whole lot sturdier then. None of that namby pamby carbon fiber polymer crap, just good old American steel.