Q Toon: Pardon Me Boys

And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, for the rest of the story.

MAGA Max and Liberal Leo have become my parable for a nation struggling to figure out how to live together these days.

Neither one really understands the other, and even though we first met Max and Leo at their couple's therapy session, at least one of them is not making much of an effort in that direction. Max has been rubbing the results of last year's election in Leo's face, and Leo has mostly been gritting his teeth and developing ulcers.

Surely something brought them together sometime in the past, but their interests have diverged in vastly different directions since then. They may speak the same language, yet the words don't mean the same thing to each other. It's now as if they come from different planets — they laugh at different comics; they root for different teams.

How long before one washes the other right out of his hair?

Never mind, for the sake of a musical reference, that Leo's pate is as bald as a cue ball.

And now Max has his very own presidential pardon for the Felon-in-Chief's Stop The Peaceful Transfer Of Power Rally, just ahead of the Justice system finally catching up with him.

He might even have been the guy charging up the Capitol steps with the rainbow flag.

Why, there he is!

Mind you, I have no intention of having Max get caught with kiddie porn on his computer, or get shot in a traffic stop, as a few (so far) of Trump's J6 so-called heroes have been. 

Now that he has his own presidential Get Out Of Jail Free card, we may never know what Max's role was on January 6, 2021. I suspect that Leo has already heard more than he wants to. Leo is likely, however, to want to come along with Max's mother's medical appointments from now on.

In any event, if you're wondering how these two can continue to share a home, so am I.

This Week's Sneak Peek

If you have to ask, the answer is probably "yes."

Meanwhile in Europe

It has been a busy week Chez Bergetoons, so today's Graphical History Tour will just be a quick run-down of 1925 getting underway over there in Europe. To start, let’s check how the armistice is holding up, shall we?

"Open All Winter" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 30, 1925

"Digging Out the Old Stuff" by Rollin Kirby in New York World, ca. Jan. 4, 1925

Yes, prospects for peace were pretty dim, according to Rollin Kirby at Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and Nelson Harding at the Gennison family's Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

"Das Nuejahrsprosten" by Erich Wilke in Kladderadatsch, Jan. 4, 1925

Munich cartoonist Erich Wilke depicted international relations as a soap opera. Whenever all the characters gather together, plot twists are in the offing.

You'll notice that Wilke hasn't yet updated his character stock book in a while; Uncle Sam is still Brother Jonathan.

"They're Out Again" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 25, 1925

U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes resigned after successfully negotiating an agreement on postwar reparations between Germany and the Entente nations, leaving it to his successor to get the agreement past the isolationists in Congress. Fortunately for President Coolidge, the Progressives were personae non gratae among their more orthodox Republican colleagues just then after their disappointing showing in the 1924 election.

"Zangengeburt" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, Jan. 19, 1925

December elections in Germany — the second in seven months— produced a coalition government of multiple parties from left, right, and center. Nazis and Communists lost seats in the Bundestag. The Social Democratic Party had the most seats, but far from a majority, and without any of the right-wing, Catholic, or monarchist parties willing to join with it.

After lengthy negotiations and bargaining among party leaders and dissidents, a coalition government was led by Centre Party, the radical nationalist German National People's Party, the conservative German People's Party, and Catholic-centered Bavarian People's Party.

"Getting Away with It, Too" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 12, 1925

In Italy, Benito Mussolini launched his dictatorship in a speech to the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He took responsibility for his Blackshirts, who had rioted and attacked newspaper offices, resulting in three deaths. Mussolini dared anyone to try removing him from office, and promised to restore order to Italy within forty-eight hours.

"Retreat from Moscow" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 25, 1925

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin fired Leon Trotsky as Kommisar for Military and Naval Affairs. Trotsky was well known outside his country, but few American cartoonists were learning how to draw Stalin yet.

There will always be an England. 

"And Still Poor Old Decadent England Leads the World" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Jan. 3, 1925

And according to A.G. Racey, there has always been a faction lamenting that Old Blighty's best days were behind her.

It's a lovely exercise in period costumes, however..

An Ill Wind

Here's a local issue cartoon — or at least it was when I drew it. Since then, I've seen the story reported on international media and late-night chat show monologues. By the time you read this, it'll probably have its own page on Wikipedia.

Samantha Kuffel, 31, was one of the on-air meteorologists at Milwaukee's CBS affiliate, WDJT-58. But right-wing professional umbrage-takers raised a ruckus after she posted on Instagram about Elon Musk's Nazi salute from the podium bearing the presidential seal at Donald Trump's inauguration festivities. 

Was it? Neo-nazis think so. Judge for yourself.

It cost her her job.

"Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58," said the staff memo from news director Jessie Garcia that was obtained by the Journal Sentinel. "A search for a replacement is underway."

A spokeswoman for Weigel Broadcasting Co. confirmed via email late Wednesday that Kuffel was no longer with Channel 58. But the spokeswoman said she couldn't comment further because this was a personnel issue.

On Tuesday, conservative radio host Dan O'Donnell sharply criticized Kuffel for her two Instagram posts, accusing her of "spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute" during the presidential inauguration. He labeled her posts "vulgar."

Was she fired for daring to speak up against the rising tide of fascism in this country? Did Channel 58 worry that viewers wouldn't be able to trust her impartiality when it comes to what percentage chance there is of precipitation or how to calculate wind chill?

Kuffel gave management every excuse to let her go. The Guardian quotes the employment-terminating unexpurgated Instagram posts:

“Dude Nazi saluted twice. Twice. During the inauguration. You fuck with this and this man, I don’t fuck with you. Full stop.”

In her second post, Kuffel appeared to post a screenshot of a scene from the FX sitcom It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia in which Rob McElhenney’s character Mac says: “Screw that old bitch. He’s a Nazi.”

Don't go looking for Kuffel's Instagram account now; it's been deactivated.

Those of us in the media, if we want to hang onto our jobs, have to be judicious in how we speak in public. I can cuss a blue streak at my computer; but on-line, restraint is the rule. Quoting other people is one thing; but in cartoons and here on the blog, 

Bad language or abuse
I never ever use
Whatever the emergency.
Though "Bother it!" I may
Occasionally say,
I never use a big, big "D."

No, never.

Well, hardly ever.

Finally, Sam — can I call you that? You local TV news people try so hard to be our friends I feel that I know you — Anyway, Sam, you have to keep in mind at all times that Trump and his MAGA minions are thin-skinned, easily butt-hurt snowflakes. 

Think what happened to you was unfair? Why, they even took offense at Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde and demanded that the New Jersey-born cleric be deported for closing her sermon with this:

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. 

"There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. 

"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. 

"May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen”

Not an F-word, or even a big, big D, in her whole sermon.

Q Toon: MAGA for Pay

I drew the original Village People in this week's cartoon, but they must be rolling over in whatever they have to roll over in if they've seen what the present iteration of the band has done to forsake its LGBTQ+ fanbase.

It all started when Donald Berzelius Trump insisted upon playing their "Y.M.C.A." at his MAGA rallies, especially at the one that degenerated into a half-hour-plus concert of his personal playlist while he, his Republican hosts, and a stand of hand-selected Trump l'oeilists stood and waited awkwardly for Trump to get tired of swaying and pumping his fists back and forth.

By the way, if you've ever been to any political rally, you know that the hand-selected loyalists who get to stand up on stage have been standing up on stage listening to that same music for two hours before the candidate ever arrived in town. The hoi polloi in the audience have been listening to it for just as long, if not longer.

Anyway, liberals mocked Trump for being such a fan of a Big Gay Anthem in spite of his antiLGBTQ+ rhetoric and threats.

The Village People, who had once upon a time joined with other artists calling on Trump to cease and desist playing their music at his rallies (organizations are supposed to pay royalties on that kind of thing, and surely Trump never has), apparently decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em (along with Snoop Dogg, Nelly, Soulja Boy, Rick Ross and the more standard cast of Trumpster musicians). The group sang "Y.M.C.A." at Trump's "Make America Great Again Rally" and the Turning Point USA Inaugural Ball on January 19.

Front man Victor Willis announced in a Facebook post that "Y.M.C.A.," in spite of its obvious gay references, isn't about gay stuff after all. I guess that has been a well-kept secret for almost half a century.

“There’s been a lot of talk, especially of late, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow a gay anthem. As I’ve said numerous times in the past, that is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life. 

“This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently being used as some sort of gay hangout and since one of the writers was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people. To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not. ...

“As I stated on numerous occasions, I knew nothing about the Y being a hang out for gays when I wrote the lyrics to Y.M.C.A. and Jacques Morali (who was gay) never once stated such to me.”

Out heterosexual Willis, who variously portrays the cop or the admiral in the band, is the only current Village Person from the original group. He dropped out of the band from 1980 to 2017, rejoining after an out-of-court settlement 

Willis gave his logic for helping Trump celebrate his return to Washington: “We believe it’s now time to bring the country back together with music, which is why VILLAGE PEOPLE will be performing at various events as part of the 2025 inauguration of Donald J. Trump.” 

Under normal circumstances, “bringing the country back together” would be a laudable goal. But bringing the country together behind a lying, corrupt, vindictive, impulsive, dull-witted, petulant, bigoted, boorish, solipsistic, venal, felonious, overgrown brat who tried to violently overthrow the previous duly elected President of the United States is not.

A Dance to Jules Feiffer

Jules Feiffer speaking to the 2015 AAEC convention by Skype

Brilliant cartoonist, author, and playwright Jules Feiffer passed away last Thursday, a little over a week before his 96th birthday.

Growing up, I mostly got to see his cartoons when I came across a copy of the Sunday Chicago Sun-Times, which ran his work in their newsmagazine supplement. It wasn't the paper we got at home, but if I spotted one a neighbor had put out for recycling, I would salvage the magazine and clip out Feiffer's cartoon.

Eventually, I found his books; my personal library includes a few of his paperbacks, plus a coffee-table size career retrospective that came out in 

A typical Feiffer cartoon was a multi-panel monologue of a solo character or a dialogue between two, their neuroses on full display — what you imagine the Peanuts characters might have become in middle age. From time to time, presidents and cabinet secretaries would appear, sharing their inner thoughts or speaking on television.

in Village Voice, New York, 1972

His drawing style was deceptively simple, bordering on rough sketch. Yet he included details that belied the outward simplicity. I failed to notice it in the example above until it was pointed out to me, but there is a motif of stripes from each panel to the next (don't miss the recruit's chevron).

I had Feiffer's monologists in mind when I drew one of my early cartoons about AIDS:

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Sept., 1985

But now that I think about it some more, it's an approach that I've used many, many times over the years. At some point, what was once an homage becomes an influence.

The closest I ever got to meeting Feiffer was when, kept home by illness, he spoke by Skype to the 2015 convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists in Columbus, Ohio, the first such convention I was able to attend in person. He spoke about the evolution of comics from the funnies of the 1930's to modern-day graphic novels.

Feiffer told us how his long-running Dancer character was modeled after a girlfriend he had once upon a time. She, too, was a dancer; their relationship didn't last long, but they remained on friendly terms and she didn't mind showing up in his cartoons year after year, slim and limber and lithe yet frozen in time.

Dance in Peace, Jules Feiffer.

from Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival promotional material, 2009

This Week's Sneak Peek

In our latest Graphical History Tour, we discussed issues arising from the city of Chicago's decision 125 years ago to connect the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers. 

Draining Lake Michigan into the Mississippi River watershed lowered the levels of all the Great Lakes but Lake Superior, with a deleterious affect on commercial shipping and hydroelectric power generation along the St. Lawrence River. I didn't mention that the state of Missouri didn't appreciate Chicago sending all its sewage toward St. Louis.

Nor did I mention a more recent development. Asian carp, an invasive species, have been spreading up the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and are now threatening, thanks to the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal, to break out into the Great Lakes. A chief concern is that Lake Erie, being fairly shallow, will be an ideal environment for Asian carp, and that they will then crowd out the native fish.

Asian carp have the unpleasant habit of jumping out of the water en masse at the slightest provocation, such as geese taking off, or boats passing by. We are told that they are edible, just in need of a more commercial name (watch for Mississushimi at your local food truck someday), but while having game fish jump into your boat might sound enticing, having fish hit you in the face at 20 mph (17.4 knots) might not.

Having them rain down on the Maid of the Mist from a height of 325 feet could be mighty unpleasant, too.

Asking Our 51st State to Go with the Flow

There has been renewed interest on the internets over comments Trump made at in California last September, promising the state "more water than you ever saw" if he were elected: 

"Donald Trump suggested there was a 'large faucet' up North that could solve all of California’s water needs for its cities, its farms and to wet down its forests so they don’t burn so fierce.

"'You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north with the snow caps and Canada, and all pouring down and they essentially have a very large faucet,' Trump said on Friday [apparently referring to the Columbia River].

"'You turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it, and it's massive, it's as big as the wall of that building right there behind you. You turn that, and all of that water aimlessly goes into the Pacific [Ocean], and if you turned that back, all of that water would come right down here and into Los Angeles,' he said."

It's exaggeration or hyperbole to suggest that Trump's remarks mean that he thinks that, because water flows downhill and Canada is above the United States on a standard map, water would naturally flow from Canada to California. But there is much that he doesn't know that he doesn't know, and elementary physics is on that list.

"The Battle of Lake Michigan" by Hal Donahey in Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 15, 1925

But you were expecting a Graphical History Tour today, so by Gosh and Golly Alrighty then, you shall have one. 

"The Precocious Boy" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, Jan. 5, 1925

A.G. Racey at the Montreal Daily Star had plenty of reservations about Canadian cooperation with United States water usage plans. 

I've lived most of my life near Lake Michigan in an area where PublicWorks Departments are acutely aware of international waterway issues. The subcontinental divide between the Great Lakes basin and the Mississippi River basin is less than ten miles from Lake Michigan around here, so water-thirsty projects that straddle that line such as Racine extending water and sewage service to the FoxConn factory practically in my back yard require approval from all the states and provinces bordering the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The divide runs through the city of Chicago. In 1900, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal opened between the Chicago River (which flowed into Lake Michigan) to the Des Plaines River (which ultimately flows to the Mississippi). The canal reversed the flow of the Chicago River; complaints that Chicago was ignoring agreements with the Army Corps of Engineers to limit the amount of water diverted from Lake Michigan in order to carry sewage down the Des Plaines date from 1907.

In January, 1925, the Canadian government and the Great Lakes Harbor Association formally protested to the U.S. Congress and the Secretaries of War and State against the city of Chicago. At the same time, the dispute reached U.S. Supreme Court in Sanitary District of Chicago v. United States.

"It's Up to You" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star Weekly, Jan. 17, 1925

The U.S. Senate heard testimony from freighter captains that water levels in the Great Lakes were lowering as a result. "The water is diminishing over the whole chain of lakes all the time," skipper Edward Fitch of Cleveland testified, adding that his ship's routine load had to be cut from 500,000 bushels of wheat to 425,000 to enable it to make harbor. 

Chief of Army Engineers Brigadier General Harry Taylor told senators that Chicago's water diversion had lowered Lake Michigan and Lake Huron water levels by 5.8" (14.7 cm), Lake Erie by 5.52" (14 cm) Lake Ontario by 5.76" (14.6 cm), St. Clair River by 4.8" (12.2 cm), and the St. Lawrence River by 8.52" (21.64 cm).

I went through Chicago Tribunes for the month of January to check whether its editorial cartoonists had anything to say about the controversy. I found one cartoon by Carey Orr coming to the Windy City's defense.

"Waiting to Cross" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Jan. 7, 1925

Returning Chicago sewage to Lake Michigan — where White people were allowed to swim! — instead of letting the Des Plaines River carry it to the Gulf of Mexico meant that the federal government would require Chicago to construct a sewage treatment plant. The lame-duck Congress, in session until March 3, deferred any legislation until the next Congress took office, but the new sewage treatment plant would be begun in due course.

I believe that Dearborn in Orr's cartoon refers to the mouth of the Chicago River where Fort Dearborn (destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire) had been located. As far as I've been able to determine, there was nobody by that name in Cook County government in 1925.

"The Dog and the Bone" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, Jan. 9, 1925

We noted last month A.G. Racey's opposition to Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover's proposed "Super Power Project" to deliver electricity generated at the St. Lawrence River "across the line" to the U.S. eastern seaboard. 

"Don't Worry, John" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, Jan. 10, 1925

"Don't Worry, John" suggests that Racey's alarm was not shared by Canadian financiers (and perhaps governmental officials in Toronto?) willing and eager to cooperate in Hoover's Super Power Project. Racey took a dim view of other deals with Canada's southern neighbor as well, here accusing them of being disloyal to John Bull.

"An Easy Sucker" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, Jan. 15, 1925

Racey's Uncle Sam put on a lot of weight between his January 5 editorial cartoon and this one a mere ten days later.

"Greedy American Super Power Interests" tempt the Canadian sucker with "Pretense of cheaper grain carriage rates" from a can of "Enlarged St. Lawrence Waterway Bait."

"Paging the Man with the Wad" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, Jan. 27, 1925

The Super Power Project would be blocked February 21 by the opposition of Ottawa and Quebec. Mr. Canada's newspaper, however, lists other sources of friction in U.S.-Canada relations, such as a long-standing Canadian resentment against forestry deals which, Racey charged, favored the Yanks.

In closing, I'd just like to caution the incoming Even More Corrupt Trump Administration not to screw up the amicable relations that our country and Canada have ironed out over the century since these cartoons were drawn. We've come to agreements on water and hydroelectricity and forestry now, and everything is hunky dory between us resource-management-wise.

Well, almost everything. 

Q Toon: Disaster Exclusion Insistence

Your friendly neighborhood cartoonist being inspired by our most recent Graphical History Tour, Jim Beautron returns for this week's Q Syndicate cartoon:

The idea I pitched to Q Syndicate required a congressman being interviewed on TV; so I decided that in the ten years since he first sprang forth from my pen, Jim Beautron has parlayed a seat in his state legislature to a seat in Congress.

There he represents every Republican who has decided that the deadly fires ravaging homes and businesses near Los Angeles are an irresistible opportunity to complain about irrelevant issues Republicans hate.

Because Los Angeles's Chief of the Fire Department is not just a woman but a lesbian one at that, Trumpster activists pounced on the idea that the fires were somehow caused by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.

Billionaire Elon Musk helped circulate screenshots of the Los Angeles Fire Department's four-year-old 'racial equity action plan,' writing "They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes."

The city's fire chief, a 22-year veteran firefighter, happens to be the first woman and openly gay person in that role. The chief, her fire department and the city government quickly became targets in right-wing media.

"When you focus your government on diversity, equity, inclusion, LGBTQ pet projects, and you are captured by environmentalists, we have been warning for years that you are worried about abstractions, but you can't do the basic stuff," Charlie Kirk, founder of the Trump-aligned nonprofit Turning Point USA, said on his podcast this week.

Just in case the American public might see that as a little far-fetched, Republicans in Congress, led by the Speaker of the House from frequent federal disaster assistance recipient Louisiana, added their own favorite woke boogiemen to the barriers to federal aid. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Monday that “there should probably be conditions on that aid” and pointed to disagreements about California’s “resource management” and “forest management mistakes.” ...

Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) said California and other Democratic-controlled states would need to atone for “bad behavior” if they wanted federal assistance. ...

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California), whose district has suffered some of the worst damage, told The Washington Post that rebuilding could cost more than $150 billion.

The death toll from the fires is up to 24, and thousands of homes have been destroyed. More than 100,000 residents have had to evacuate to flee the blazes.

Lawmakers typically approve federal aid after natural disasters without requiring states to change policies first....

"The country expects that the federal government will come in and help people,” Sherman said. “Look, I voted for aid for Hurricane Sandy and Maui and Hurricane Laura in the delta in Louisiana, and the idea that something my party wanted would be part of that, it didn’t occur to me. No, we just provided the aid.”

And no natural disaster would be complete without this: squawking on Trump Social, the Felon-elect accused Newsom of refusing to sign a non-existent "water restoration declaration that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California." 

Perhaps from now on, Democrats need to stop being so altruistic when disasters strike Red America. 

So the next time a hurricane levels the Floribama shore, or tornadoes hit Kansas, or the New Madrid fault flattens Tennessee, or Texans freeze or fry because their electrical grid collapsed, let's insist on granting unconditional citizenship to every immigrant who identifies as Latinx.

Too much? Okay, we'll settle for raising the debt ceiling.

The Ass in a Lion's Skin

Aesop's Fable Updated

 An Ass found a Lion’s skin left in the forest by a hunter. He dressed himself in it, and roamed about in the forest amusing himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met in his wanderings. All took to their heels the moment they saw him.

The Ass was so pleased to see the animals running away from him, just as if he were King Lion himself, that he could not keep from expressing his delight by a loud, harsh bray. 

A Fox, who ran with the rest, stopped short as soon as he heard the voice. Approaching the Ass, he turned to the other animals and proclaimed: "Behold! Here is Lion, King of the Beasts, here to Make America Great Again!"

The Muskrat twittered Xcitedly, "All hail King Lion!" And he leaped and  jumped for joy.

The Zuckerbird agreed. "Whatever you say!"

Then the canary chirped, "But he's an ass!"

The Wapopotamus and the Raccoon-cheong turned sharply to her. "Be quiet!" they grunted and hissed. "Are you trying to get us in trouble?"

And the creatures bowed and prayed to the Lion King that brayed.

Tjugondag's Sneak Peek

Why invent a new character when an old one will do?

Lycklig Tjugondag Knut to all my Scandihoovian readers out there: time to haul that juletre out to the curb!

P.S.: Tune in again Tuesday for a free cartoon that came to mind while I was drawing this one for Q Syndicate.

Quel Hommage

Today's Graphical History Tour dives into the archives in my basement and comes up with a quartet of cartoons from Januaries from decades ago.

I mentioned earlier this week that some of my fellow editorial cartoonists mimicked Ann Telnaes's drawing style in their #StandWithAnn cartoons, while I and others had not. I've drawn a number of cartoons over the years in the style of other artists, particularly when appropriating their ideas. Other times, I have simplified the drawing, as in this one:

in UW-P Ranger, Kenosha Wis., Jan. 31, 1985

I was referencing a nearly 75-year-old cartoon drawn by Puck cartoonist Johannes Keppler when then-President William Howard Taft was having similar problems getting his legislative agenda through Congress and the courts.

"I Must Have Been Dozing" by Johannes Keppler in Puck, June 22, 1910

I didn't include anywhere near as much shading, the window, the doorway, or anything outside the room, but I kept the Capitol sewing basket, the table it rested on, and two of the cats.

Now, there was a problem with my cartoon in that hardly any of the Ranger's readers would have had any reason to be familiar with the original Keppler version. Not even the professors would have had a subscription to Puck magazine in 1910; only someone else with The American Presidency in Political Cartoons 1776-1976 (Peregrine Smith Inc., 1976) could possibly have caught the reference.

The message of the cartoon still applied, and should have been understood by anyone paying any attention to current events; but as a tribute, the cartoon was, frankly, just stealing an old idea.

Reusing someone else's old cartoon works best if the original cartoon is (or ought to be) well known: Thomas Nast's "Who Stole the People's Money," or Charles Schulz's cartoons of Lucy yanking the football away from Charlie Brown. I am reminded, however, of a recent cartoon by a fellow editorial cartoonist that referenced a specific episode of The Simpsons. According to the reader comments, I wasn't the only person who had missed that particular episode and therefore the reference.

Then there was the time that I drew a cartoon for the NorthCountry Journal relying on a reference to "Calvin and Hobbes," a very popular comic strip running in many newspapers at the time. The NCJ editor and publisher, however, had never seen "Calvin and Hobbes," so I had to explain it to her and assure her that her readers would get the cartoon.

By the way, the credit line under my signature in my Ranger cartoon says "again," because I had drawn a cartoon the previous November about Ronald Reagan's reelection, based on a Keppler cartoon celebrating Teddy Roosevelt's 1905 inauguration. I don't suppose many Parkside students or faculty were familiar with that cartoon, either.

✍

in UWM Post, Milwaukee, Jan. 30, 1995

I include this cartoon in part to set up a subsequent homage cartoon. Dick Armey (R-TX) was the new House Majority Leader in the 104th Congress, and one of the architects of the 1994 Republican Revolution.

During a January 20, 1995 radio interview, Armey referred to fellow Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), the only out gay man in Congress, as "Barney Fag." The quote, verbatim, as Armey was discussing a possible book deal, was: “I like peace and quiet and I don’t need to listen to Barney Fag, [pause] Barney Frank, haranguing in my ear because I made a few bucks off a book.” 

The slur was reported by several radio networks, and Armey blamed the media for reporting on what he claimed was an audio glitch, not a slip of the tongue or intentional insult.

Rep. Frank refused to accept Armey's excuses, saying, “There are a lot of possible ways to mispronounce my name but that one, I think, is the least common, ... I turned to my own expert, my mother, who reports that in 59 years of marriage, no one ever introduced her as Elsie Fag.”

✍

in Business Journal, Milwaukee, Jan. 21, 2005

A propos the Washington Post editor's excuse for spiking an Ann Telnaes cartoon on the grounds that it reiterated past and future opinion columns, here's one of the many cartoons I drew for the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee reiterating the editorial it ran alongside.

That was, in fact, the role I was expected to fill at the Business Journal from 1996 to 2005. I was brought in to replace conservative cartoonist Craig DuMez, who had often drawn whatever was on his mind. The editors at the Business Journal were interested in having editorial cartoons that reflected the week's editorial — which weren't always as far to the right as DuMez was.

Or, in this case, political at all.

I've never met the guy, but DuMez might have chafed at having to draw as many cartoons about hospital expansions, mergers, and construction as I had to do in my nine years with the Business Journal. This editorial had something to do with an addition to Froedtert Hospital, which the Beej hoped wouldn't be tarted up with a bunch of fancy frills — the sort of things one assumes architects dream about and hospital planners hope will make patients feel they're in a five-star hotel.

✍

for Q Syndicate, Jan., 2015

Finally, 2015 was going to be the year that the Supreme Court discovered that criminalizing same-sex marriage discriminated against same-sex couples, so Republican legislatures around the country were desperately preparing mechanisms to keep unconstitutional discrimination legal.

This is one of my cartoons in which the characters are not based on real people, even if their actions or opinions are based on those of actual persons. My clue to the reader that I've made up the person in the cartoon is if their name is somehow a pun.

You might find Lauryl's name in the list of ingredients on your shampoo bottle. Senator Beautron can be found overlooking a sports arena and displaying scores, stats, and replays.

I was considering last names for my latest recurring characters, MAGA Max and Liberal Leo, whom I named purely for the alliteration. "Headroom" has already been taken, so perhaps Max's surname should be K. Passidy. Or something less obvious, like Carpone. How about O'Delay, Leo?

I'll have to get back to you on that.

Q Toon: On the Road Again

I have to admit that it's tough coming up with cartoon ideas these days.

It's not for a dearth of topics. Congress is back in session. A dishonest grifter who led an insurrection against democracy is about to take over the U.S. government. Our broligarchy is falling all over itself to kowtow to the new Trumpreich. Justin Trudeau's government is collapsing. Warfare against civilians continues in Gaza and Ukraine. Islamist radicals have toppled Russia's client in Syria. Blizzards are blanketing parts of the U.S., and fires are raging around L.A. A couple of "Once a Marine, always a Marine"s decided that their New Year’s resolution was to go out as terrorists.

It's no wonder that, according to a recent poll, people are sick of paying attention to the news. I'm not immune to this particular malady, either.

I turned on the news Tuesday afternoon around lunchtime, and there was Donald Berzelius Trump, having himself a live press conference, blathering on about bathroom showerheads and dishwashers and toilets. So I immediately turned it off and missed the part about declaring war on Greenland, Denmark, Panama, Canada, and the Gulf of Mexico.

By the way, not to be overly crass, but when Trump complains about having to flush his toilet 15 times, it's because there's no way in hell he'd ever touch a scrub brush.

And when he summoned the media on Tuesday to share his oral diarrhea with us all, it was because he's jealous of a dead president getting all the attention.

Anyway, since I haven't come up with an LGBTQ+ angle on any of that yet, this week's cartoon is about Pete Buttigieg packing up his stuff and vacating the office of Secretary of Transportation. 

I for one will be sorry to see him go, and interested to see what his next steps are. He has been the Biden administration's most effective spokesperson, the guy who has held his own and then some going up against the Fox Noise angers anchors. He might end up in one of the other news channels' stable of talking heads, but it would be a shame if that limits him to talking to a friendly audience.

He has been mentioned as a candidate for office in Michigan, where he and Chasten now reside with their family. How Michiganders would feel about a Hoosier asking for their vote is open for discussion.

Buttigieg might consider running for president again in 2028. He should probably ask Liddy Dole whether being a former Transportation Secretary is a sufficient credential for the Oval Office. 

First, he'd have to get the Democratic Party nomination, of course. 

And as the past three presidential contests have shown, Democrats have higher standards for nominating a presidential candidate than RepubliQans do.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Since I didn't quite get my #StandWithAnn cartoon posted here before midnight Sunday night, I've delayed posting This Week's Sneak Peek until Tuesday.

When I read the AAEC’s call for cartoonists to post “finished” versions of Ann Telaes’s rough sketch, I took it to mean a call to put forth basically the same cartoon. I see, however, that many of my fellow ink- and pixel-slingers have taken the core concept of her cartoon and taken it in novel and creative ways.

My own was pretty rough — I didn’t spend as much time as I normally would tweaking caricatures and varying the weight of line. And the only substantive variation I made on Telnaes’s concept was replacing the plutocrats’ money bags with their heads. (Which Dave Whamond also did.) 

Oh, and I added Elon Musk.

A few cartoonists mimicked Telnaes’s style, and good for them. I didn’t try that approach, and I’m not confident that I could pull it off. Her work has such a wonderful fluidity and animation to it — even in still images.

More on mimicry later.

Anyway, back to the cartoons in support of Ann Telnaes: At some point, once this #StandWithAnn thing has played out, someone is going to post a collection of the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all. I’m sure I’ll post a link to it when it happens.

P.S.: Here’s that link. https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2025/01/07/dozens-of-cartoonists-so-far-hashtag-stand-with-ann-telnaes/

Or via Christian Vachon: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1E4ukpRYCu/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Post Waste

Editorial cartoonists have been buzzing this weekend over a cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winning Ann Telnaes that was spiked by her employer, The Washington Post, causing her to quit the job. The cartoon would have portrayed Post owner Jeff Bezos, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, Facebook-Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, AI CEO Sam Altman, and Disney's Mickey Mouse prostrate before a colossus Donald Trump, offering him/it bags of cash.

Telnaes explained on her Substack, where you can also find her rough sketch of the cartoon:

“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable,” Telnaes wrote. “For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’”

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) came to Telnaes's defense with a strongly worded statement:

"… The AAEC condemns the Post and their ethical weakness. Editorial cartooning is the tip of the spear in opinion, and the Post’s cowering further soils their once-stellar reputation for standing up and speaking truth to power. We weep for the loss of this once great newspaper…

We request that all editorial cartoonists do a finished version of her rough and post it in solidarity with Ann’s brave and sadly necessary decision. Please use the hash tag #StandWithAnn…"

I therefore add my two cents to the conversation:

The bruhaha has been reported all over the internets. I suppose, in fairness, one should let the head honcho at WaPo have his say, too.

The Post’s communications director, Liza Pluto, provided The Associated Press on Saturday with a statement from David Shipley, the newspaper’s editorial page editor. Shipley said in the statement that he disagrees with Telnaes’ “interpretation of events.”

He said he decided to nix the cartoon because the paper had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and was set to publish another.

“Not every editorial judgement is a reflection of a malign force. ... The only bias was against repetition,” Shipley said.

As any editorial cartoonist will tell you — and several already have — editors have never shied away from printing an editorial cartoon that buttresses an editorial column in the same newspaper. Good God, man, that was my entire job description with the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee.

I had not been among the thousands canceling subscriptions to the Post last fall when its management spiked an editorial endorsement of Kamala Harris for President. That was in large part because I appreciate and enjoy Ann Telnaes's cartoons.

I'm now subscribing to her Substack. Soon, the newspaper publishing model for our profession will be dead and we editorial cartoonists will all be trying to live off each others' subscriptions to our own Substacks.

Meanwhile, if you want to subscribe to the Post, it continues to publish the cluttered, right-wing editorial cartoons of Pulitzer Prize winning Michael Ramirez, and editorial cartoons about mulled wine, neither of which risk getting Mr. Bezos on Donald Trump's Enemies List.

Jimmy, We Harshly Drew Ye

Today's Graphical History Tour leafs through some editorial cartoons from the scrapbook I kept back during Jimmy Carter's presidency. 

Back then, almost every major newspaper in the world had its own editorial cartoonist or two, and very often supplemented them with syndicated editorial cartoons from elsewhere. (And every major city had more than one daily newspaper.) Any given issue of Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report and National Review would have several editorial cartoons illustrating their reportage, even occasionally commissioned for their covers.

So I got to see many cartoonists' work in print. I'm afraid this can't be a comprehensive account of every cartoonist's caricature of the 39th President of the United States. There were hundreds of editorial cartoonists plying the trade in those days, and most of them were quite good at it.

These are the cartoons I liked best for one reason or another: some for the artwork, and others that I thought were most effective at the time, even if I disagreed with them. None of my own cartoons are in that old scrapbook, so none of them follow. (Besides, I've done that post before.)

"Don't You Fret About These Little Rascals," in Chicago Tribune, March 27, 1977

I'll start with the only one of the cartoons in my scrapbook whose cartoonist I don't know for sure. There's no signature on this cartoon, and the Chicago Tribune didn't run a credit line under it. It was not someone who regularly appeared in the Trib. 

I was impressed by the stylish line technique, as well as the caricature; coming early in the Carter administration, cartoonists were just then having to develop a Carter characterization that did not involve him smiling broadly. Quite a few came to exaggerate the distance between nose and mouth.

Next up come two of the giants of editorial cartooning from that era, both here tackling the challenge of drawing President Carter without the smile. Even taking into consideration that both of them inspired imitators in the biz, I wouldn't need to see signatures to identify the work as theirs.

"Performer and Critic" by Pat Oliphant in Washington [DC] Star, April, 1977

The simplicity and spareness of Pat Oliphant's drawing apart from that tuba sells the cartoon. Jeff MacNelly's idea below is carried by the detail and heightened perspective.

"I Sure Picked a Rough Neighborhood to Run Out of Gas In" by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond News Leader, Oct., 1977

Jack Ohman wrote in his Substack this week that both Oliphant and MacNelly hated Carter — well, Oliphant hated everybody, Ohman says. He knew them both, and I don't. Anyway, Oliphant quickly began to draw Carter as a much smaller man than he actually was, and MacNelly gradually followed. By the eve of the 1980 election, both drew cartoons in which Carter didn't even come up to Reagan's knees — their way of saying that instead of growing into the job, Carter had done the opposite. 

"Not a Bad Man" by Dick Locher in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 1979

Such was also the point of this devastating cartoon by the Trib's Dick Locher. He must have really liked this idea, rehashing it decades later with President Barack Obama in the title role.

"For Human Rights" by Don Wright in Miami News, ca. Feb. 1977

I doubt that was the message behind the relative sizes of Carter and the Russian bear in Don Wright's cartoon, drawn only a month or so into the Carter administration. It does illustrate, however, a significant foreign policy change instituted by Carter to emphasize human rights. 

U.S. foreign policy after World War II had been focused on containing communism, even at the cost of allying ourselves with repressive right-wing regimes. That the Soviet Union was both communist and repressive meant that U.S.A.-U.S.S.R. relations were not likely to change all that much.

"Is It True You're Not Leaving Washington" by Mike Peters in Dayton Daily News, ca. Nov. 1977

In matters of style, Carter was given to performative gestures: walking from his inauguration carrying his coat bag, addressing the nation in a cardigan sweater, and cancelling a foreign trip because Congress hadn't passed his energy policy bill.

Mike Peterson posted a selection of cartoons from the Carter presidency on Monday, and Steve Greenberg observed that he was the only cartoonist in that bunch who is still producing editorial cartoons for publication. I believe that Mike Peters is the only such cartoonist in this here post. 

"Of Course I'm in Charge Here" by Clyde Peterson in Houston Chronicle, ca. Nov., 1977

Clyde Peterson drew under the pen name CP Houston with a fetching style all his own. I do suspect that had he drawn a Black politician with lips this large, he would have been labeled, even in pre-P.C. 1977, racist. Plenty of other cartoonists on this blog post would have run the same risk.

"Born Again" by Ivan Licho in Militant, New York, Feb. 3, 1978

This cartoon by Ivan Licho for the newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party (one of my college roommates had a subscription) unfairly likens Carter to the two presidents who preceded him, but I found the drawing itself compelling. 

Its caption's reference to President Carter's religious faith sets up this next cartoon, when Carter's sagging poll numbers were lifted by achievement of a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt:

"Borne Again" by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, March, 1979

I'm not sure that there is anything special about Paul Conrad's drawing, aside from my hometown newspaper's decision to crop it rather severely. I just like the pun.

As I said above, this was not intended to be a comprehensive collection of U.S. cartoonists by any means; others have already tackled that task. What I haven't seen is any sampling of foreign editorial cartoonists; so here's a random bunch from my scrapbook.

"Either This Man Is Dead or My Watch Has Stopped" by Leslie Gibbard in Manchester Guardian, Sept. 1977

Under President Carter, the U.S. officially recognized the government of "Red China," 28 years after Maoist forces overthrew Chiang Kai-Shek. It was an opening made possible by Richard Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972, although our continuing "Two China" policy doesn't quite mean we've surrendered Taiwan to Beijing. Yet.

Even more impressive than transforming Carter into Groucho Marx is Leslie Gibbard's transformation of Chinese President Hua Guofeng into Margaret Dumont.

"You're Not Going to Let a Little Teng Like That Spoil Your Appetite" by Ed Uluschak in Edmonton Journal, ca. Feb., 1979

While I was in college, my parents gifted me a subscription to the monthly Atlas World Press Review, later just World Press Review, which published articles, columns, and editorial cartoons from around the world. (I continued subscribing to it after I graduated until I noticed that my income was falling far short of my expenses, forcing me to cut it along with Cinemax and pre-packaged frozen dinners.)

Ya'acov "Ze'ev" Farkash in Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv, ca. Jan., 1980

Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev sent Russian troops into Afghanistan to bolster a client government there in the winter of 1979-1980, while the Carter administration was hobbled by preoccupation with the hostage crisis in Iran.

by Keith Waite in Sun, London, Feb., 1980

Carter's response of pulling the U.S. out of Moscow's 1980 Olympic Games is beautifully skewered by Britain's Keith Waite. Russia retaliated by pulling out of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

"Scoops" by Doug Sneyd, self-syndicated, Oct., 1980

In a way, what doomed the Carter administration from the start was that there was no outside voice coming to its defense or lauding its achievements. Its triumphs quickly faded, while the mistakes, misfortunes, and malaise lingered on.

I've read some historical fiction recently imagining Carter reelected to a second term. He would then have been in office as OPEC's grip on world economic power was broken, the Soviet Union became unable to hide losses in Afghanistan and two of its sclerotic leaders died in quick succession. The Equal Rights Amendment might have passed. He'd have gotten to name a Justice to the Supreme Court. 

He'd also have been in office as HIV/AIDS spread like wildfire, terrorists killed 143 Marines in Beirut, and the U.S. went through a recession.

Assuming he didn't get shot to impress Jodie Foster.

Instead, he went on to be one of the most exemplary ex-presidents in history, and his family got to celebrate his 100th birthday with him.