Q Toon: Prattville Prattle

Or, The Pastors' Prorogue.

In the interest of drawing about anything that has nothing to do with the impending Even More Corrupt Trump Administration, or the Republican campaign of persecution against transgender Americans, I present to you my annual Christmas Holiday Cartoon.

Prattville, Alabama, population just under 38,000, celebrated its annual Christmas Parade down East Fourth, Wetumpka, Northington, and Main Streets last Friday, with lights, marching bands, dancers, candy, beads and trinkets, but not without a bit of litigious drama.

The town's LGBTQ+ group, Prattville Pride, paid their $30 entry fee to have a float in the parade, only to have their application rejected by Mayor Bill Gillespie, Jr. Prattville Pride took the city to court to be allowed to march in the parade. With mere hours before the parade was to start, they won their case.

In his order, U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker of the Middle District of Alabama wrote: “While there are areas of unprotected speech, such as incitement of violence, the City makes no argument and provides no evidence that Prattville Pride has engaged in any speech or behavior that would remotely fall into an unprotected speech category. It is undisputed that Prattville Pride has complied with the City’s regulations.”

“The City removed Prattville Pride from the parade based on its belief that certain members of the public who oppose Prattville Pride, and what is stands for, would react in a disruptive way. But discrimination based on a message’s content “cannot be tolerated under the First Amendment,” the order continued.

Toleration, as it turned out, was in somewhat short supply.

Two participants pulled out of the parade after Huffaker’s order: St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, which initially backed out after Prattville Pride was included only to reverse course after the city’s ban, and Drive-In Park, the headquarters of “mobile movie evangelists” Drive-In Ministries.

“Unfortunately we are back to our original stance of having to forgo the parade since the pride float with their drag queen is back in it,” said Father Den Irwin, pastor at St. Joseph’s. “I am sincerely sorry for any inconvenience. We were trying to support the City after they boldly removed the float. However Prattville pride challenged the ruling in court and won.”

Drive-In Park said in a social media post it was “disappointed” that it had to pull out of the event.

“Our convictions at Drive-In have guided us to decide that we should not participate this year due to the inclusion of the Prattville Pride float,” the post read.

Congregants of St. Joseph and Drive-In Park who had put in so much work putting their floats together were no doubt crestfallen, although I'm pretty sure at least one of them has a parking lot they could parade around and around in.

As for the town's official parade, I have not been able to find any reports of any further disruption thereto. Neither fire nor brimstone has rained down upon beautiful downtown Prattville, according to the latest from the Weather Channel.

Just beads and trinkets.

This Week's Sneak Peek

 Behold, I bring you tidings of great, um, joy...

Churchill: A Life in Cartoons

This week's Graphical History Tour is yet another book report: just in time for the 150th anniversary of Winston Churchill's birth, cartoon historian Tim Benson offers over 300 editorial cartoons from the British wartime leader's career in Churchill: A Life in Cartoons.

Back in October, I was curious about an Arthur G. Racey cartoon from 1924 that held up Churchill's propensity for wearing hats as something out of the ordinary, even though just about everybody wore hats in those days. The mystery is explained in Benson's introduction to the book: at the dawn of Churchill's career, cartoonists thought that unlike his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, he lacked "the features which lent themselves to easily recognisable conventional treatment" (— cartoonist Francis Carruthers Gould, August, 1904). 

Benson writes that heeding the advice of Gould and other cartoonists,

"Churchill started wearing a variety of hats, all of which were distinctive in that they were too small for his head. Churchill once claimed that this was a deliberate strategy, beginning in 1910 when he caused a stir by donning a felt cap several sizes too small in front of photographers."

"Our Choice of Political Leaders" by Victor Weisz in News Chronicle, London, Nov. 23, 1945

He later adopted the cigar (never smoked down more than an inch) and the V symbol for the same reasons, although by then cartoonists had sufficiently honed their caricatures of the man that they really didn't need the extra clues. But, as Donald Trump is always drawn with an extra-long red tie, the cigar was de rigueur in any Churchill cartoon.

When I ordered this book, I expected it to be full of David Low cartoons (like the one on the cover), but Benson has deliberately sought out cartoons which, according to the back page, "have not seen the light of day since they were first published." Low is not overlooked entirely, but you'll find many more cartoons by George Whitelaw, Victor "Vicky" Weisz, Clive Uptton, and Leslie Illingworth.

There are also plenty of cartoons from the United States, Germany, Italy, Australia, and the U.S.S.R.; even a few from Brazil, India, South Africa, Netherlands, and Mexico. What struck me, having just read and reviewed a book about Canadian editorial cartoonists, is that there is only one cartoon in this book from Canada. (The book has no index; if anyone finds a second Canadian cartoon in there, please let me know.)

"Das Alte Lied" ("The Old Song") by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Sept. 12, 1943

The cartoons published in nations that were Britain's enemies, such as this one by Arthur Johnson (sadly, not in color in Benson's book) in which it's the U.S. flag that Churchill is obliged to carry, serve as a welcome counterpoint to the patriotic wartime cartoons from the homeland. Benson notes as an aside that this is one of the few German cartoons that alluded to Franklin Roosevelt's polio — an absolute no-no in U.S. and allied cartoons, photographs, and reportage. 

If I have any complaint about the book, it is that there are a few cartoons that, when printed two per page, include print that is too small for these old eyes to read. Typically, that involves labels identifying politicians who are long forgotten or simply unknown this side of the pond. Since the text accompanying every cartoon does a more than adequate job of explaining their context and external references, my not being able to identify the Labour councilman from Westgloughingham is a very small point.

Churchill: A Life in Cartoons helps greatly in the understanding of the two World Wars from a British point of view (especially as distinct from the U.S. perspective). With a half century of cartoons dating from 1904 to 1954, including a number drawn by cartoonists who have graced our Graphical History Tour over the years, Benson's is a remarkable and praiseworthy contribution to the celebration of Churchill's sesquicentennial.

Now, I'm not one to tell you to run right out and buy this book. But Christmas is right around the corner and you might have someone in your life who is interested in cartooning, or history, or England; and perhaps that is something they would tell you.

Q Toon: Trump's DEI Hire

The odd couple of Liberal Leo and MAGA Max return to discuss a Trump cabinet nominee nobody else is drawing cartoons about.

Drawing for the LGBTQ+ press, I feel obliged to highlight President Re-Elect Donald Trump's naming of an out gay man to his cabinet. Scott Bessent stands out from Trump's other appointments not so much because of his sexual orientation, but more because in contrast to the rest of them, he's so normal.

Yes, he's a billionaire, not Mr. John Q. Public. But he's no worm-brain-addled RFK Jr., or Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard, or pardoned blackmailer Charles Kushner, or sexual harasser Pete Hegseth, or snake oil huckster Doc Oz, or fascist weasel Steven Miller. Nor did he shoot his own dog, as Secretary-designate for Homeland Security Kristi Noem did. Or come to Trump's attention via World Wrestling Entertainment, like his choice to head the Department of Education, Linda "But We Asked Our Pederasts to Please Stop" McMahon.

As important as the post of Secretary of the Treasury is — being fifth in the line of presidential succession and all — you might not hear much about him during his time in office, unless he joy rides in an Air Force jet as Trump's last Treasury Secretary was wont to do. (Quick: without looking at the money in your wallet, who has been Treasury Secretary during the Biden years?)

Do I really think that Scott Bessent is a diversity hire? Not really. His financial support of Trump and the MAGA movement would have a lot more to do with his appointment. Trump may want to burn Justice, Defense, Interior, Education, Health and Welfare, and Veterans Affairs to the ground, but he has a vested interest in keeping his Secret Service detail paid so they can afford his hotel room rates. (Didja know that the Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department?)

To be honest, I suspect that if Bessent leaves the Even More Corrupt Trump Administration early, it will not be because he was the token gay hire. 

But when the Trump tariffs and draconian Muskaswami budget cuts push us into a new recession and eggs are still $4/dozen, somebody is going to have to be the scapegoat, and it's going to be the person who doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the Cabinet of Misfit Toys.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Our local County Executive died in office a few months ago, so we have a special election coming up on December 19. It's nominally a non-partisan post, so the election couldn't be lumped in with the November 5 national elections; why this election and its November 14 primary were scheduled on Thursdays is beyond me.

I haven't missed an election in four and a half decades, but I'm sorely tempted to skip this one.

Both candidates going into the general election are Republicans, which isn't terribly surprising. The office has been held for many years by men who have endorsed Republicans for other offices and have resisted actions of Democratic governors. There was at least one Democrat vying for the office in the primary, but local Democrats are still shellshocked by the November 5 results.

There had been at least one Democrat running in the primary: Lorenzo Santos, a Black Latino, currently an emergency manager for the county, who had declared candidacy for Congress this year only to withdraw in deference to former Congressman Peter Barca. (Barca lost the November 5 election to incumbent Republican Bryan Steil; our district hasn't elected a Democrat to Congress since unseating Barca — thirty years ago!)

The other losing County Exec candidate was Rev. Melvin Hargrove, Diversity Officer for the county and sometime school board member. He's Black, in case his job title didn't tip you off; I'm not personally aware if he has a party affiliation.

The candidates making it onto the December 19 ballot are both White. Wendy Christensen is County Clerk, in which office she declined to issue a marriage license to my husband and me. It's not as if she were as obstinate as Kim Davis of Kentucky; Christensen turned issuing our marriage license over to someone else in the office. In the years since, I have returned the favor by voting for someone else whenever she's been on the ballot — although that has meant writing in a name on the Democratic blank.

Judging from lawn signs we've seen driving across the county this weekend, I'd say the leading candidate is grocery store owner Ralph Malicki. I presume that he's a Republican, since in the areas I drive frequently, his lawn signs quickly sprouted up where Trump lawn signs used to be. 

The local newspaper and an on-line news aggregator have published, or will soon, the candidates' answers to a list of questions sent to both of them. Malicki hadn't answered RacineCountyEye.com's questionnaire before the primary; perhaps he doesn't feel he needs to let us know what he thinks about the .5% county sales tax, or incentivizing industrial development in current farmland.

What we won't see are any reports of which is the more Trumpy or Bible-Thumpy of the two candidates. (I have noticed that in yards where Trump lawn signs still stand and Trump flags fly, neither Malicki's nor Christensen's signs have joined them.) Absent that information, come December 19, I'm inclined to write in the name of the candidate I voted for in the primary.

Toons of Thankfulness and Praise

I hope you have saved some room for some leftover Thanksgiving cartoons today. Our Graphical History Tour has whipped up a tasty dish from the editorial and comic pages of 1924.

"Mr. Coolidge Breaks His Silence" by T.H. Webster for N.Y. World's Press Pub. Co., Nov. 27, 1924

Calvin Coolidge, in keeping with longstanding tradition, officially proclaimed that year's national day of Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 27, the last Thursday of the month. The troubled tom in T.H. Webster's cartoon would have waited in vain for a presidential pardon to save him from the butcher's axe.

The tradition of presidents pardoning a turkey or two at Thanksgiving was apparently inaugurated by John F. Kennedy (reports of meleagristic pardons by Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman are not supported by presidential records). The first official presidential pardon granted to a turkey was by George H.W. Bush in 1989.

"If We All Don't Get Our Share This Year It Won't Be Because the Turkey Isn't Big Enough" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Nov. 27, 1924

Prosperity Triumphant was the theme of editorial cartoons in many a Thanksgiving Day newspaper in 1924. It was the midpoint of the Roaring ’20's, of course. The stock market was booming, employers were hiring, speakeasies were jumping, and flappers were, uh, flapping.

"We Have with Us Today" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 27, 1924

Republican-leaning editorial cartoonists offered plenty of cartoons for the day crowing that Americans ought to be thankful to reelected President Calvin Coolidge for the apparently robust economy everyone was enjoying. 

"Even They Have Something to Be Thankful For" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Nov. 27, 1924

Democrats and Progressives, on the other hand, were still eating crow, and the editorial cartoonists who had advocated the election of John Davis or Robert LaFollette shied away from political ruminations for the holiday.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith for Chicago Tribune Service, Nov. 27, 1924

Speaking of unsuccessful presidential candidates: Andy Gump — whose campaign manager had neglected to file Gump's candidacy — used the holiday to wax philosophical about his loss.

"Me and Mine" by Clare Briggs for N.Y. Tribune Co., Nov. 27, 1924

Elsewhere on the comics page, even in 1924, one did not necessarily head home for the holidays. The ladies in Clare Briggs's cartoon agreed to disagree over the relative merits of a home-cooked meal and not having to clean up after one.

"Cap Stubbs" by Edwina Dunn for George Matthew Adams Service, Nov. 27, 1924

It has been a long time since our tour has checked in on one of the very few female comic strip artists of the 1920's, so here is Edwina Dunn, presenting her titular "Cap" Stubbs with one of his typical conundra.

"Your Own Nightmare" by Jim Ring in Washington Times, Nov. 27, 1924

Returning to the editorial page: I guess Jim Ring didn't particularly care for the Thanksgiving holiday. Or perhaps being called upon to draw something for the Washington Times editorial page at the last minute because the editors or publisher there didn't care for whatever it was that their usual cartoonist, T.E. Powers, had offered them for the day.

"And Here's Another Problem" by John Knott in Dallas Morning News, ca. Nov. 26, 1924

As if Jim Ring hadn't burdened you with enough Thanksgiving nightmares, along came John Knott to remind us that it's time to flip the page on the calendar.

So therefore we bid you and yule a fond au revoir, a happy post-Thanksgiving, a toilichte St. Andrew's Day, and a merry month to come.

Gobble fa la la: la la la la!

Q Toon: Bubble, Bubble, Toilet Trouble

Delaware, the First State in the Union, is now also the First State in the Union Represented by a Transgender American.

Democrat Sarah McBride, whose deadname is Nunnoyer Dambizness, won election as the state's one and only Representative in the 119th Congress, and Republican panties immediately entered into wad mode. South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace led the hue and cry that Congresswoman-elect McBride would not be welcome in women's rest rooms anywhere in the Capitol building.

Speaker Mike Johnson, whose duties include assigning toilet stalls, readily acquiesced to Mace's demands, publishing a new rule that lavatory use must align with one's gender as assigned at birth, no matter what changes may have taken place in the meantime. His order gently suggested that members can avail themselves of the personal lavatory facilities in their own offices; and McBride has accepted the crapper command calmly and professionally.

It may not have occurred to the Transphobic Caucus that not all transgender persons have transitioned from male to female. There are some people who have found their peace transitioning in the opposite direction. While none of those persons have yet been elected to Congress, I expect that Congresswoman Mace will suffer advanced conniptions if she ever hears that Chaz Bono has come to lobby the legislature after a heavy lunch.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi might offer that Mace's complaints are much ado about chicken shit. We all remember how much deference the Trumpster mob showed to female sensitivities when they came to lobby Capitol Hill to overturn the 2020 election on 1/6.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Most Americans either have extra company this week, or they are the extra company this week. 

We cartoonists are no exception, so I'll very likely be off my usual schedule here at the blog. 

But have no fear; there will be a new cartoon.

Coping With Loss

I've made as a regular feature of these Graphical History Tours digging up cartoons that I had drawn 40, 30, 20, and 10 years earlier, give or take a week or two. That will be the theme for today, and the good news is that means there will be no cartoons about the lying sack of shite about to infest the Oval Office next January.

The bad news is that starting in 1984, elections in years ending in a four somehow seem to have all favored Republicans, and that is what each of these cartoons will be about.

in UW-P Ranger, Somers Wis., Nov. 29, 1984

That's a completely unrecognizable Newt Gingrich (R-GA) in the center of this cartoon from November of 1984. Gingrich's suburban Atlanta district had just reelected him to a fourth term in Congress, where he was founder of the "Conservative Opportunity Society." Ronald Reagan embraced the ideas of these previously obscure House members in his reelection campaign. 

It was easier to find pictures of former football star Jack Kemp (R-NY) and thus easier to come up with a good caricature. I'm not sure whether the third shoe salesman was intended to be any specific congressman.

in UWM Post, Milwaukee, Nov. 10, 1994

Ten years later, Gingrich’s hair had gone completely white, and I was having plenty of practice honing my caricature of the chief architect of Republicans’ “Contract With America.” The GOP had successfully campaigned on its promise to cut taxes now and to pass a constitutional amendment requiring balanced budgets in the future— the failure of Supply Side economics to date notwithstanding.

Q Syndicate, Nov. 2004

George Dubya Bush's reelection campaign in 2004 rested heavily on post-9/11 jingoism, but also on Republican Party promises to fight back against the homosexual menace. 

If any significant fraction of the liberals, LGBTQ+s, and feminists who have vowed to move to Canada because of an incoming Republican administration had ever carried through with it, Justin Trudeau would be cruising to another term in office with a solid parliamentary majority to back him up.

Instead, we have for the most part stayed here on our side of the line, fought for our right to marry, and left Mr. Trudeau desperately trying to salvage his rickety coalition government in a gale force blizzard.

Q Syndicate, Nov., 2014

Equal marriage rights were still tantalizingly beyond the reach for many of us in November of 2014. In Michigan, where Q Syndicate is based, adoptive parents April DeBoer and Jayne Rouse had sued as a couple for the right to adopt each other's children. The Sixth Circuit Court overturned lower court rulings that had favored DeBoer and Rouse, ruling instead that marriage was reserved for couples who might bear children unintentionally.

The ruling was a setback for same-sex couples with children in Michigan and other states covered by the Sixth Circuit (Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee).

The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage the following year in Obergefell v. Hodges. 

For now. The Court now doesn’t think highly of marriage equality. Or Obergefell. Or stare decisis.

Toon: Who Laughs Last

I left this cartoon as somewhat of a rough sketch because the idea reminded me too much of a cartoon Pat Oliphant once did of House Speaker Tip O'Neil in the 1980's. In the last month, I've posted extra cartoons aping the great cartoonists David Low and Thomas Nast. Did I really need to add another update of someone else's work?

Well, as I commented when I thanked Mike Peterson for citing yesterday's Matt Gaetz cartoon, Gaetz might be a thoroughly reprehensible excuse for a human being, but he is kind of fun to draw — so here's the cartoon anyway.

With apologies to Pat Oliphant, and to any of my colleagues who had the same idea this morning.

Q Toon: Barbarians Matt the Gaetz

Our pussy-grabbing President-reelect has, to Republicans' great surprise, named Matt Gaetz, the newly resigned Congresssleazeball from Florida, to be the highest law enforcement official in the land in his even-more-corrupt-than-the-first second administration.

Gaetz has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for the past three years over allegations of his drug-fueled sex parties with under-age girls. Republicans in Congress have reported that he showed them photographs of the girls he'd had sex with; but he went from boasting of his exploits to throwing roadblocks in front of the Ethics Committee's inquiry, including taking down Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy when McCarthy wouldn't quash the investigation for him.

His one remaining friend in the caucus, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Chastity Beltway), has proved more amenable, vowing to bury the committee's findings on the grounds that Gaetz resigned just as the committee was finally ready to go public. Johnson says it's because Gaetz is now just a private citizen.

Like Hunter Biden.

Even some of Trump's most slavish defenders are trying to convince themselves that Gaetz's nomination is somehow "not serious," or intended as a feint to get someone slightly less outrageous into the job. If so, Gary’s is one of many not-serious nominees. 

The primary experience Trump is looking for as he assembles his Cabinet of Dr. Tarr & Professor Fether is TV screen time: a Saturday morning Fox Noise host for Defense (the sexual assault allegations against him are apparently a bonus); a syndicated snake oil salesman to run Medicare and Medicaid; a pro wrestling personality for Education; and a 1997 contestant on Real World Boston for Transportation. Trump is still trying to choose between the My Pillow Guy and the Oxy Clean Guy which one gets Commerce which one gets Labor.

The more plum position goes to the Guy with the more sexual misconduct accusations.

Toon: Circle Joke

If you spend a lot of time watching cable TV news, first of all, do yourself a favor and stop; and second of all, you will have heard a variety of pundits, academics, and people of the mistaken belief that they should run for president someday, who are weighing in on Why Kamala Harris Lost The Election.

One of the leading theories is that President Joe Biden and those closest to him handicapped her by running for reelection in spite of mounting evidence that his mental acuity had begun to decline. Many of us, myself included, had voted for him in 2020 on the presumption that at 77, he planned to serve one term to repair the damage left behind by The Corrupt Trump administration, then hand leadership of the party over to someone younger.

Instead, he decided to run for reelection, as he put it, "to finish the job."

Which is ridiculous.

The presidency is not a job you're supposed to "finish." Each president does what he or (someday) she can, and turns it over to the next person. The job is never finished until the Republic is.

Donald Berzelius Trump, I fear, may "finish the job."

Anyway, my worry back when Biden announced his 2024 candidacy was that he didn't have confidence that Vice President Kamala Harris was up to taking over the job from him. Or that a Democratic Party primary battle would leave its victor hobbled by constituencies feeling that they were denied their due, or ignored, or unwelcome. Or, in the absence of a primary battle, ditto.

As things have turned out, plenty of Democratic constituencies are complaining about being denied their due, ignored, or unwelcome anyway. The Left complains that Harris tacked to the center instead of wholeheartedly campaigning on their agenda. The Centrists complain that Harris embraced "wokism" and transgender rights and people who say "Latinx."

I saw a scholar on The Daily Show this week promoting his election post-mortem book, arguing to Jon Stewart that Democrats were doomed by their embrace of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). He wasn't saying that Democrats should join Republicans in promoting Uniformity, Inequity, and Exclusion; just that they should call DEI something else — as if the right-wing propaganda machine wouldn't devote itself to turning the new name into a dirty word.

Now, I suppose that had Harris listened to the Palestinian rights crowd and condemned Netanyahu's genocidal war in Gaza, it might have been enough to get her over the finish line in Michigan. But it wouldn't have made the difference in any of the other "blue wall" swing states. Vowing to send undocumented alien drug dealers to Guantanamo might have gained her Arizona.

On the other hand, those moves might have helped about as much as affecting a southern drawl helped her in Georgia and North Carolina.

No Thanks, I've Had Enough

 

This Week's Sneak Peek

I should have been thinking of Thanksgiving cartoons (Hey! How 'bout drawing someone in the news as a turkey?), or even something for World AIDS Day.

But this guy is everywhere. A festering cancer that has spread itself throughout the entire lymphatic system of the body politic. A ringing tinnitus that robs you of sleep at night and obsesses your thoughts all day. 

A malevolent poltergeist destined to haunt us long after that blessed day when we mistakenly think he's finally gone.

What Kind of Nation Elects a Fascist?

The answer may depress you.

I'll give you a hint: not a great one.

for Q Syndicate, Oct. 2004

Today's Graphical History Tour kicks off with a cartoon I drew 20 years ago when George W. Bush was sailing on a swiftboat to reelection. It expressed my feelings about his GOProud supporters then, and seems a propos to the several demographics who, having witnessed the shitshow that was Donald Berzelius Trump's first term, decided to ask for another.

Rather than the usual recap of my cartoons from 40, 30, 20, and 10 years ago, I feel that I just can't ignore the foreboding of what's in store during the next four.

When the outcome of last week's election could no longer be denied, I changed my personal Facebook photo, which had been of my "I Voted Today" sticker and buttons for three of the people I voted for, to this cartoon that I had drawn the first time our Electoral College handed the nation over to Donald Trump:

for Q Syndicate, November, 2016

I soon learned that my esteemed colleague, Jack Ohman, had just published an extremely similar cartoon, based on the same Bill Mauldin classic that had inspired mine.

That is what we in the editorial cartoon biz call a "Yahtzee." Jack and I independently came up with the same idea, based on the same subject matter familiar to both of us, to express the same reaction to (more or less) the same news event. Or, in this case, the recrudescence of the same news event eight years later.

To be quite honest, however, neither of our Lincoln Memorial Barfing cartoons quite capture my reaction this time around. The election of Trump for a second reich, this time with the support of an actual majority of my fellow Americans, feels more like seeing a dog eating its own vomit.

I’m not drawing that cartoon. 

Pat Bagley drew a slightly more sanitized version of that sort of idea anyway, and it was still too risqué for his editors at the Salt Lake Tribune. I don't like to swipe my colleagues' work here, but I think you need to see what I’m talking about.

"Lap Lap Lap..." by Pat Bagley for Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 9, 2024

At this point, we’ve moved on from the initial shock and horror of Trump’s election, to the ever-accumulating nausea and dread of one outrageous cabinet appointment after another to the impending cabinet of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether.

I tried warning everyone about it with last week’s Graphical History Tour, but obviously, I wasn’t forceful enough. 

I didn't include this next cartoon last week lest it prove prophetic:

January, 2021

Perhaps I should have.

It has been noted that if you've ever wondered what you would have done when the Nazis took over Germany, congratulations, you're doing it now.

Having seen the cartoons of Ben Garrison, Chip Bok, Gary Varvel, Henry Payne, and others gloating over the November 5 results, I'd suggest my colleagues substitute the word "drawing" for "doing."

Since this post is supposed to be about history, here's a little taste of what Germany's cartoonists were drawing when Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933.

"Die Meistersinger (Dritter Aufzug) by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Feb. 12, 1933

The Garrison types were in charge at the Berlin satirical weekly Kladderadatsch, where Hitler's rise to power was greeted with the above paraphrase of the poet Hans Sachs, a leading character in Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. (February, 1933 happened to be the 50th anniversary of Wagner's death, so there were a number of cartoons referencing the composer at the time.)

"Immer Sein Kampf..." by Karl Arnold in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 5, 1933

Simplicissimus, published in Munich since 1896, was a center-left counterpart to Berlin's Kladderadatsch. Its satire became less pointed during The Great War, under pressure to be patriotic; it was no friend of the Nazis during the Weimar period, however.

I don't know whether the date on their February 5, 1933 issue is when it hit the newsstands, or the date until which it was intended to remain on the newsstands, but the cover cartoon's intention was clearly to mock the prospect of a Hitler chancellorship on the strength of a bunch of hayseeds from the Teutoburg forest area.

"Zur Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches" by Karl Arnold in Simplicissimus, Stuttgart, March 12, 1933

Shortly after Hitler's rise to power, Simplicissimus had found it necessary to decamp from Munich to Stuttgart.

"Wagner in Walhall" by Thomas Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, February 12, 1933

Having already spent time in prison for publishing a cartoon critical of Kaiser Wilhelm in 1898, editor Thomas Theodor Heine appears to have shied away from satire targeting individual politicians. I don't detect a political subtext in his tribute to Wagner; yet Heine still had commentary to offer about the new government's plans to fix the German economy.

"Vierjahresplan" by Th. Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 26, 1933

Within months, Heine, a Jew, was ousted from the magazine and would flee to Czechoslovakia. When that, too, proved unsafe, he moved to Norway, and finally to Sweden, where he died in 1948. His last cartoon in Simplicissimus was in the April 1, 1933 edition, under the appropriate title, "Epilogue." 

"Epilog" by Th. Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Stuttgart, April 1, 1933

Q Toon: It's Only a Day Away

It’s gonna be a rough four years — more than four, from what plans were already seeing of Republican plans to circumvent and stifle democratic norms and safeguards.

Let me just say here that I'm aware that some people are tired of politics, politics, politics. I get it. The 2024 election in this country went on too loud and too long, and only partly thanks to all those Trumpsters who have been flying their Trump flags in front of their house and from the back of their pick-up trucks non-stop for the past eight or nine years.

But there is a guy in my age cohort whose TikTok video explained succinctly what those of us who care about democracy are going through right now. America has spoken loudly and clearly that all the values we were taught to live by since we were kids belong in the garbage. The role model they want to hold up for their children is a lying, cheating, grifting, self-centered, infantile, spiteful, hateful, racist, sexist, fascist, financial ignoramus without one single redeeming social trait.

Who, in the words of the guy he wants for his next Secretary of State, had he not inherited a fortune from his old man, would be selling counterfeit gold watches on the street.

By the way, if you're in the market for those gold watches and tennis shoes he's been hawking on Trump Social, better get 'em now before the tariffs kick in.

Meanwhile, if America has decided to trade all those virtuous values I grew up with for a cheaper carton of eggs, I'm sorry, folks.

No deal.

This Week's Sneak Peek

This guy gave me a host of problems this week.

Leo the Lib and MAGA Max make a return this week, and the first problem I ran into was that I haven't drawn Leo from this angle before. Trying to make him recognizable, I cluttered my drawing board with an awful lot of eraser dust. Eventually, I had a face that was acceptable.

But I wasn't getting having him slumped in his chair right. I'm still not satisfied with this.

Then, when I had the cartoon scanned and transferred to my computer screen, I realized that he was way, way out of perspective. I clipped the image above and moved it to a better location in the cartoon, then erased the portions that would be covered by the people in the foreground.

So far, so good.

But the setting required lots of people in the background, too, and now there was a big gap in the space where Leo used to be. The rest of a table needed to be filled in, as well.

Photoshop does a lot of things really well, from filling in colors, shading, and centering text. But it's not designed for drawing lines, especially straight ones. It's like performing surgery with a bowling ball and oven mitts.

So I'm not happy with what went out for syndication today, but deadlines are deadlines. I'm going to try fixing what I can the old-fashioned way this week, though.

When the Nation Kept Its Cool

The American people spoke loudly and clearly on Election Day, November 4, 1924.

"The Avalanche" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 5, 1924

The outcome wasn't even close. Incumbent President Calvin Coolidge garnered 54% of the popular vote to John W. Davis's 29% and Robert LaFollette's 17%. The Electoral College map was just as lop-sided; Davis won only Oklahoma and the states of the Confederacy minus Kentucky; Coolidge won 382 Electoral College votes from almost everywhere else.

"Touchdown, Game's All Over" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Nov. 5, 1924

Darling, or whoever wrote the headline for his morning after cartoon, didn't understand football very well if he thought that it only takes one touchdown to win a football game.

Or perhaps he was predicting the current overtime rules.

"They Still Have the Wagon" by J.N. "Ding" Darling for Register and Tribune Syndicate, Nov. 5, 1924

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial attempted to explain the Coolidge landslide, placing some of the blame on the ridiculously long nomination fight at that summer's Democratic Party convention:

"The selection of [Charles] Bryan [as vice presidential nominee] aroused all the opposition to William J. Bryan and gave the Republicans the opportunity to make Bryan, instead of Davis, the target of attack. The Bryan nomination started the drive of the business element into the Coolidge camp.

"The La Follette movement completed the drive. It turned out to be a futile thing, but it served as a red menace to turn the drift of business towards Coolidge and Dawes into a panic.

"The La Follette ticket, which drove the business element to Coolidge, drew large elements of the labor vote from the support of Davis. The labor vote that it did not draw it confused and disorganized. ...

"The Ku Klux Klan helped the Republican ticket effectively. Democratic klansmen in every state knifed Mr. Davis. The McAdoo followers, who were opposed to the naming of the klan [in the party platform] and bitterly disappointed by the defeat of McAdoo, were resentful, if not bitterly hostile, to the Democratic candidate."

"I've Just Begun to Fight" by Clifford Berryman in Washington (DC) Evening Star, Nov. 6, 1924

In his syndicated cartoon, Darling agreed with the Post-Dispatch editorialists as far as attributing some of Davis's loss to Sen. Robert LaFollette; Berryman pointed out, however, that LaFollette came out of the election with only the Electoral College votes of his home state.

"Hardly So Much as a Grease Spot Left" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 6, 1924

Nevertheless, LaFollette led the vote in several counties in midwestern, plains, and west coast states. In statewide results, he came in second, ahead of Davis, in California, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Oregon, Wyoming, and Washington state. 

"I Thought It Was a Whale" by James "Hal" Donahey in Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 5, 1924

Had their 74 electoral college votes gone to Davis (in no state in which LaFollette came in third was his total more than the difference between the Republican and Democratic totals), it still wouldn't have been enough to tip the election away from Coolidge.

Incidentally, Cleveland Plain Dealer front-page cartoonist Hal Donahey's brother Alvin won reelection as Governor of Ohio. Hal had drawn several cartoons boosting Alvin's campaign and lambasting his Democratic opponent, but restrained himself from drawing a cartoon to crow about Alvin's victory.

As for Democratic- and Progressive-leaning cartoonists, most turned in "Ain't We Glad It's Over" cartoons for the day after the election and quickly moved on to other topics. One exception was Thomas E. Powers.

"I See by the Papers" by T.E. Powers for Star Co., ca. Nov. 7, 1924

"I See by the Papers" was one of Powers's regular features for William Randolph Hearst's Star Company, in which he typically whipped off three to six mini-cartoons on topics of the day. Powers chose not to dismiss the election results as quickly as some other critics of the Republican Party, and he here took note that the stock market reacted enthusiastically to Coolidge's election.

"Out of the Workers' Reach" by O.P. Williams for Star Co., Nov., 1924

Others in Hearst's stable took a more sour grapes view of the stock market delirium. 

20-20 hindsight affords us the knowledge that before long, the stock market balloon would burst. By then, however, Coolidge would have retired to Northampton to write his memoirs.

"The Republicans Win" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Nov. 5, 1924

Down in Dixieland, James Alley was another disappointed Democrat.

Up north of the border, Montreal Star cartoonist Arthur Racey offered his own explanation of Coolidge's victory, and the only one of these cartoons that got a chuckle from me during this bleakest of weeks:

"The Sphinx" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Nov. 5

Before we leave the 1924 election behind, there is one more third-party candidate to consider.

Loyal visitors to this blog will recall that two years earlier, Sydney Smith's cartoon character Andy Gump was elected to Congress (at least in the comic strip) but lost to his rival in a recount. In 1924, Gump set his sights on the highest office in the land.

"The Gumps" by Sydney Smith for Chicago Tribune Syndicate, Nov. 5, 1924

This time around, he should have kept a closer watch on his campaign manager.