Must Be the Season of the Imp

Today's wayback machine is set forty years ago to February, 1983, and we start off with the British royal family.

If it's any consolation to Prince Harry and Meagan, their forebears (his, anyway) had to put up with plenty of palace gossip and intrigue before either of them had even been born.

unpublished

There may have been a day when intrusion by British tabloid photographers on the royal family's privacy wasn't so obnoxious as it is today, but not within living memory. My cartoon included the Queen Mother, Princes Charles, Andrew, and Edward, and Princesses Diana, Anne, and Margaret hounding a fictional tabloid photographer and his wife.

I don't believe that this cartoon was ever published; the usual markings on the back of the paper telling layout what reduction percentage to get the cartoon to fit on the page are missing.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Somers, Wis., Feb. 3, 1983

When you hear about President Biden's lackluster approval ratings, it's useful to remember that the U.S. President in February of 1983 wasn't doing particularly well at the same stage of his presidency, either.

That imp in down in the corner was a gimmick I tried out that year of having a little character to add further comment on cartoons. Like Pat Oliphant's Puck, or Fred Siebel's crow, or R.C. Bowman's puppy (except I hadn't heard of R.C. Bowman yet). Mr. Imp didn't last very long.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Somers, Wis., Feb. 10, 1983

In fact, he was already missing by the next week's cartoon.

He was more trouble than he was worth. After spending a whole lot of time thinking up a cartoon in the first place, who needs to spend even more time coming up with lines for an imp that might well be saved for a later cartoon? 

Of course, these days, I have to come up with a headline to go along with the cartoon when I send it in to the syndicate. Otherwise, some editor there will send it out to my subscribers with a headline that steps all over the punch line. Imagine the third cartoon here under a headline "Telling Reagan to Let Them Think for Him."

in UW-Parkside Ranger,  Somers, Wis., Feb. 24, 1983

Alas, poor demon. Well I knew him, Horatio; an imp of limited jest.