Q Toon: Wrecking Crew

Okay, since he was in the news, I wanted to draw a cartoon featuring gay Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week. A parody of Evita for his $40 billion dollar bailout to Argentina, perhaps? A take-off of Green Acres for his claim to be a soybean farmer?

Donald Quattorze Trump's demolishing of the White House East Wing to make room for his latest vanity project is emblematic of so many other issues — Republican Party persecution of transgender people is merely one that happens to be of particular interest to the LGBTQ+ publications that run my cartoons.

Other cartoonists have drawn Trump taking a wrecking ball to the Constitution, the U.S.A., and facts; further possibilities are almost endless. One could just as easily drawn him destroying the economy, education, health care, our standing in the world, free speech, cities, DEI, Palestine, campaign promises, his own cognitive capabilities...

Or how about the Epstein Papers? Mustn't forget the Epstein Papers.

Oh, never mind. It's all been done.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Wait, didn't I already draw one about Trump demolishing the East Wing of the White House?

And by the way, since the World Series is even up now, does that mean I should be researching century-old Angelino politics for this week's Graphical History Tour?

No Kings, Canadian Style

Last month, we took our Graphical History Tour to the special election in Wisconsin that sent Robert La Follette Jr. to the U.S. Senate. That was so much fun, that today, we're heading north of the border to kibbitz on the  general election Canada held one month later.

"Are We Downhearted" by James Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, Oct. 1, 1925

Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was forced to call for a general election after the budget presented by his government was rejected by the Canadian Parliament in September, 1925. King's party held the most seats in Parliament (118), but claimed a majority only because of the tepid support of the four-year-old Progressive Party (58 seats). The Conservatives led by Arthur Meighen came to the October 29 election with only 49 seats; another five seats were held by Independent Labour and United Farmers of Alberta.

"Sweeping Everything Under the Bed" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 5, 1925

The Conservatives' number one issue was their proposal to raise tariffs on imported goods, a policy opposed by the Liberals and especially the Progressives, whose constituency of prairie province farmers would be hurt by barriers to imports and exports. The issues swept under the bed here were railway and ocean rates and Senate reform.

"The Idol and the Sacrifice" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Oct. 2, 1925

Conservative stalwart A.G. Racey depicted the Liberals' low-tariff policies in the direst of ways: in one cartoon after another, his eastern Canada was at the mercy alternately of a dagger to the heart, a bludgeon to the head, and a rope to the throat.

"What a Protective Tariff Wall Has Done for the U.S.A." by Arthur Racey in Montreal Star, Oct. 12, 1925

In contrast, Racey pointed across the line to Calvin Coolidge's United States, where high tariffs appeared coupled with unparalleled prosperity. He could not, or would not, foresee how Herbert Hoover's United States would fare.

"Her Favorite Song" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 28, 1925

Racey's endorsement of Smoot-Hawley-style tariffs was shared by the conservative Toronto Evening Telegram, which may or may not have had an editorial cartoonist of its own; its archives for 1925 are not available on line. Sam Hunter at the Toronto Star twits the rival newspaper's editorial enthusiasm for copying the U.S. model by depicting "Tely" accompanying Meighen and Ontario Premier G. Howard Ferguson as they sing the U.S. national anthem.

"When Forke Pulls the Rope, What Happens" by Arthur Racey in Montreal Star, Oct. 1, 1925

In case depicting Prime Minister King stabbing, bludgeoning, and garroting hapless Quebeckers didn't work, A.G. Racey had another line of attack: arguing that the real threat came from Robert Forke, leader of the Progressive Party, the junior partner in the Prime Minister's governing coalition.

The Progressives were a fractious bunch, having suffered from party defections in the few years in elective office. By and large, however, their power center was in the central plains provinces, and were more opposed to high tariffs than the Liberals were.

"Devinette" by Passepoil (?) in Le Canada, Montréal , Oct. 8, 1925

Across town at the francophone Le Canada, its cartoonist answered Racey's October 1 question with a cartoon depicting a masked man festooned with dollar signs (a Yankee, I presume) wielding the rope around the necks of Meighen and his Québécois lieutenant, Esioff-Léon Patenaude, a former Conservative cabinet minister and member of the province's National Assembly.

I have not found any background of the cartoonist who signed his cartoons as Passepoil — son nom de plume? — if I'm reading it correctly. (I've cleaned up the out-of-focus scans of Le Canada as much as I can; I could be mistaken about the name.) The character thumbing his nose and replying "Not a darn!" is Baptiste Ladébauche, originally created by Hector Berthelot in 1877. A boisterous, roguish, and merry old peasant popularized by Albéric Bourgeois, Baptiste was the personification of French Canada, roughly the equivalent of Uncle Sam for the U.S.

Baptiste’s retort here, in English, is as it appeared in the original cartoon.

"That Meighen-Nationalist Alliance" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 16, 1925

For his part, Liberal cartoonist Hunter warns his Toronto readership that Meighen would be beholden to Patenaud and his Québécois supporters. The wedding car of Meighen and “Nationale” is tailed by “Compulsory French in Canada's Schools," "Anti-Imperialism" (opposition to British and U.S. influence), and "Quebec First.”

"What the Solid Bloc Would Let Quebec In For" by Arthur Racey in Montreal Star, Oct. 22, 1925

Was it the Liberals and Progressives themselves that A.G. Racey feared, or was he merely trying to gin up Quebecker resentment of Canadians out west? He certainly opposed "anti-imperialism," instead charging that Quebec would be shaken down by "Western Domination." 

The one supposedly wasteful project he listed, "the useless Hudson Bay Railway," is an 810-mile (1,300-km) track connecting Churchill, Saskatchewan to Flin-Flon, Manitoba begun some twenty years earlier to open up grain exports to Europe. Its construction was suspended during World War I, and it didn't yet reach Hudson Bay until construction resumed in 1926. The Canadian government would take over the line in 1929, eventually selling it to private ownership in 1997.

"Les Croque-Morts" by Passepoil in Le Canada, Montréal, Oct. 23, 1925

Baptiste Ladébauche holds a sheet of figures purporting to show how well the economy is doing, while the black hooded figure behind Rodolphe Monty (a Conservative candidate in Montreal), Meighen, and Patenaude holds a picket with the Conservatives' slogan, eerily prescient of one of the U.S. presidential candidates last year: "The country is in ruins; only Meighen can save it."

"A 'Party' Call" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 26, 1925

Sam Hunter also predicted that Canada would not be receptive to Conservatives' Cassandra calls of "blue ruin."

"My Moose, Mr. King" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 30, 1925

But when the votes were counted on October 29, Hunter had to acknowledge that the outcome was, at best, in doubt. Liberals lost 18 seats to the Conservatives, including Mr. King's. Progressives fared even worse, losing 36 of the 58 seats they started out with.

Yet even though the Conservatives more than doubled their previous representation in Parliament, they still fell eight members short of a majority, with none of the other parties interested in a coalition with them.

"On the Carpet" by James Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, Oct. 31, 1925

Instead of leaving office, Prime Minister King persuaded a member of his caucus in a safe riding to resign so that King could stand for election there. The minority coalition government of Liberals and Progressives would be short-lived, thanks to a scandal already brewing in the Customs Department; but at three days, the Conservative government of Arthur Meighen that followed has the distinction of being the shortest in Canadian history.

Toon: Indefensible Day

You might suspect that I wasn't drawing this for syndication.

But if there are any editors out there looking to fill some empty space on their opinion page, I'd be willing to clean up the language for you.

With everything in chaos, from the government shut-down, to ICE thugs running roughshod over American cities, to farmers losing their export markets, to Russia relentlessly bombing Ukraine, it's worth remembering that the Shittiest President Ever is keeping his mind on the duties of his office.

"At this moment in time, the ballroom is really the president's main priority." — White House spokesbimbo Karoline Leavitt

Well, when not awarding himself over a quarter of a billion-with-a-B taxpayer dollars in a frivolous lawsuit.

Q Toon: Prison Break

Out of the blue, Shittiest President Ever Donald Dump  Trump announced on the Ministry of Truth Social that he had commuted the prison sentence of disgraced former Congresscritter George Santos, a.k.a. Anthony Devolder, a.k.a. Kitara Rivera, who was less than three months into serving a five-year sentence on multiple federal charges of identity theft and wire fraud.

Commutation of Santos's sentence also means that he gets out of paying fines and restitution. And if you think that’s outrageous, just wait until you witness Infinitely Corrupt Emperor Trump awarding himself over a quarter billion-with-a-B of your tax dollars while the whole government is shut down.

Santos says that he's a changed man, which should alert everyone in the country to check whether they have just become a victim of identity theft.

"George Santos was somewhat of a 'rogue,' but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren't forced to serve seven years in prison," Trump wrote. Trump likened what prosecutors had called Santos's "mountain of lies, theft, and fraud" to Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CN) having stolen Vietnam service valor, which he called "far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!"

So there we have the essence of Trumpism: loyalty to Boss Donald gets you absolved of all felonies and misdemeanors, whereas anyone who has ever crossed him gets persecuted by the full weight of the Department Formerly Known As Justice, the masked jack-booted thugs of ICE, and the Red State National Guard.

Should Zohran Mamdani win the mayoralty of New York as expected, count on Generalissimo Shit Dumper to issue an executive order naming George Santos-Devolder-Rivera-YourNameHere Emergency Military Mayor of Occupied New York.

Zero Days Since His Last Outrage

I mean, how is a cartoonist supposed to keep up with this .... stuff?

This Week's Sneak Peek

While we still have the liberty, we editorial cartoonists are having a little fun with that Time magazine cover photo of Donald Trump that has so upset him. Your humble scribbler included:

Jack Ohman, for example, has been drawing Trump with no face this past week, just that vulviform neck wattle. How long he can keep that up only time (not the magazine) will tell; we humans rely on observing facial expression to determine someone's meaning and intention. Not including the face can open up a cartoon to misinterpretation.

By the way, I've been seriously considering forgoing the pig snout in my caricature of Lord Trump for much the same reason. It gets in the way of some facial expressions, as I kept butting up against in this week's cartoon.

But I wouldn't want to end up drawing a "This Shop Gives to Every New President of the United States a Free Rhinoplasty" cartoon, so I'd have to replace the snout with some other visual symbol.

I tried drawing him with Mussolini's cap once, which might have been too obscure a reference these days. It also got in the way of drawing his bizarre hairdo, one of his most recognizable features. A crown or a MAGA cap present the same problem (and could also get in the way of dialogue balloons).

I guess there is some point at which one might as well let Trump symbolize himself. Cartoonists got along just fine drawing Nixon as Nixon and Hitler as Hitler. Future cartoonists (assuming there will be any) are likely to draw future authoritarians with Trumpiform features as a way to signal how crooked, corrupt, dictatorial, delusional, or mendacious they are.

✍

By the way, when my copy of Time arrived in the mail on Friday, the cover was not that under-the-chin photo of Trump's wattle. The cover story of my issue was the account of one of the Israeli hostages released last week. The alternative covers shown in thumbnails on page six were for a Best Inventions listicle and a feature piece on Stranger Things. 

By the time the next Time comes out, ceasefire violations could well have rendered "His Triumph," "The Leader Israel Needed," and "How Gaza Heals" moot. 

Was Ist Los in Translation

Keep your babel fish handy today: our Graphical History Tour jets overseas to check up on what cartoonists in Germany were drawing a century ago. But first: a brief layover in the Netherlands!

"Labour en Het Communisme" by Leendert J. Jordaan in Notenkraker Amsterdam, Oct. 10, 1925

I came across this Dutch cartoon some time ago and saved it on the chance that I could use it here once October, 2025 came around. Now that it has, here it is.

Leendert Jordaan had been cartoonist for the satirical magazine Die Notenkraker (The Nutcracker) since 1909. His fiercely critical cartoons against Hitler would be published by the Netherlands’ underground press during World War II. Unlike Die Notenkraker, he survived the war, cartooning for Het Parool and Vrij Nederland until his retirement in 1961.

This got me wondering why I had not been finding any cartoons by the great Dutch cartoonist Louis Raemaekers in the U.S. press after the Armistice was signed, given how celebrated he had been stateside during the Great War. After all, he was still drawing cartoons up to and during World War II.

My guess is that in the years between the wars, isolationist sentiment in the U.S. meant that there was little interest in Raemaekers’s belligerently anti-German cartoons. Even in his home country, Raemaekers was unable to find a Dutch publisher for his 1927 collection of cartoons.

"Zeit-Ie-Wat" by Louis Raemaekers in De Telegraaf, Amsterdam, Oct. 15, 1925

So here is what I could find that Raemaekers was getting published in Amsterdam in those days (American audiences having enough trouble sussing bee's knees, spifflication, and gams without pondering the lingo of the guys and dolls overseas, too).

I will merely Yanksplain Raemaekers's joke by pointing out that "slang" is the Dutch word for "snake." Get it?

Moving on to Germany so that I may impress you with my ability to googlen sie deutsch:

"Souvenir de Locarno" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich/Stuttgart, Oct. 26, 1925

The major European news for the month was an international conference of continental leaders in Locarno, Switzerland. Over the next few months, conferees would hammer out a series of agreements, notably establishing new mutual borders of France, Belgium, and Germany, and admitting Germany into the League of Nations.

The cut lines in Thomas Heine's imagined photographs read:

"[Italy's Benito] Mussolini, who decided to smile occasionally at the conference."

"[Belgium's Émile] Vandervelde during a performance of The Marseillaise in the hotel .”

"[German Foreign Minister Gustav] Stresemann happily reports to [Chancellor Hans] Luther that he has been greeted by a French journalist."

"[France's Aristide] Briand striking a comma from the press release."

"[Britain's Foreign Secretary Sir Austen] Chamberlain choosing his tie."

Speaking of British decorum... 

"Selbsterkenntnis" by Oskar Garvens in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Oct. 4, 1925

The cut line accompanying Garvens's cartoon identifies the caption as something David Lloyd George said during a debate on expanding the British fleet. If so, Lloyd George was quoting Rev. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones in a statement that has since been misconstrued as the Welsh pastor's characterization of the former Prime Minister.

"Helden des Sports" by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Oct. 11, 1925

Garvens continued his concern for dark-skinned peoples a week later, citing a French report about an American sports personality who had joined the Franco-Spanish air attacks in Morocco, where Rif rebels had established an independent Islamic state.

The tiny paragraph explaining the cartoon doesn't cite the source of the French report or name the American jock, so I can't tell you with certainty who he was. A September feature article for the Philadelphia Public Ledger by Charles G. Reinhart, however, names ten American fighter pilots, most of them World War I veterans, flying for France. Reinhart's article mentions that one of them, Charles Wayne Kerwood ("Chuck"), was an amateur athlete in Philadelphia.

"Just Can't Keep Them Out of War" in Salt Lake Tribune, September 6, 1925. Kerwood is seated under the W in the headline.

They weren't just flying reconnaissance, by the way. The Associated Press reported on September 11, 1925: 

"The American aviators of the Sherifian esquadrille, in their bombing of Sheshuan, Riffian stronghold, are reliably reported to have killed more than 100 warriors. Their bombs also greatly damaged the Riffian military establishment and disorganized the troops concentrated there."

"Sie Hält Es Nicht Mehr Aus" by Werner Hahmann in Kladeradatsch, Berlin, Oct. 11, 1925

I haven't seen much celebration of the 140th birthday of the Statue of Liberty this month, but her 40th anniversary caught the eye of Kladderadatsch cartoonist Werner Hahmann. I would guess that he used the occasion to twit the United States over Prohibition, and New York City in particular for its air pollution.

"Polen und der Sicherheitspakt" by Arthur Krüger in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Oct. 4, 1925

The Danzig (Gdansk) Corridor, affording Poland access to the Baltic Sea but separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany, was a sore point for Germans between the wars. Krüger portrays the corridor as a knife in the shoulder of Michel, the cartoon personification of Germany; an unkempt Poland urges France to join in a security pact with the condition that the knife stays in place.

“Danzig” by Emil Weiss(?) in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Oct. 11, 1925 

I’m sure this was funnier in the original German, but at least I shouldn’t have to explain what the cartoonist was trying to say.

Q Toon: Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back in the Lair

He's back! And just in time for Hallowe'en.

The Supreme Court heard opening arguments in Chiles v. Salazar last week.

Kaley Chiles, who bills herself as a Christian therapist, has sued the state of Colorado over its Minor Conversion Therapy Law (MCTL), which bars mental health professionals from offering "conversion therapy," the widely discredited practice of pressuring a patient who identifies as LGBTQ+ to change their sexual orientation.

Chiles, who is a practicing Christian, contends that although she does not try to “convert” her clients, she does try to help them with objectives that may include “seeking to reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions” or becoming more comfortable with their bodies. Chiles filed a lawsuit in Colorado, asking a federal court to block the state from enforcing the conversion therapy ban against her.

Colorado has not taken any action to enforce its ban against Chiles, or, for that matter, anyone else during the six years that the MCTL has been on its books, which brings into question what standing she has to bring a case to the nation's highest court. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out, "we [even] have the entity charged with administering the law saying 'We’re not going to apply it to your kind of … therapy.'" 

That didn't stop the right-wing "Alliance Defending Freedom" from bringing the case before a Court majority eager to overrule Colorado's legislature, or the Absolutely Corrupt Trump Regime™ from filing an amicus curiae brief in support. Calling Colorado's law "blatant viewpoint discrimination," Justice Samuel Alito, for one, agrees with the plaintiff's argument that while the law does allow exceptions for religious practice, it violates her freedom of speech.

Twenty other states have laws similar to Colorado's MCTL, which could very well be rendered moot by Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Comey Barrett, and Roberts, in spite of bipartisan, professional and religious condemnation of conversion practices. Even some former "ex-gay" advocates have weighed in against conversion therapy:

"We once believed that there was something morally wrong and psychologically 'broken' about being LGBTQ. We know better now. We once believed that sexual orientation or gender identity were somehow chosen or could be changed. We know better now. We once thought it was impossible to embrace our sexual orientation or gender identity as an intrinsic, healthy part of who we are and who we were created to be. We know better now...

"In light of this, we now stand united in our conviction that conversion therapy is not 'therapy,' but is instead both ineffective and harmful. We align ourselves with every major mainstream professional medical and mental health organization in denouncing attempts to change sexual orientation or gender identity."

But we now live in a country where the conspiracy fabulists in charge of the nation's health care system have not merely freedom of speech but governmental imprimatur to say Tylenol causes autism, salmonella is good for you, and gender identity is a figment of your imagination. And any medical professional who disagrees is free to find other employment whether they want to or not.

And where a majority on the Supreme Court are free to prescribe the U.S. Constitution some conversion therapy into Project 2025.

This Week's Sneak Peek

 I had a lot of colorization to do this week.

The following has absolutely nothing to do with the above cartoon.

Prolific editorial cartoonist Clay Jones has been sidelined by a stroke, partly paralyzing his right side, including his drawing hand. Since cartooning and self-syndication are his sole source of income, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists has set up a GoFundMe page to help Clay during his recovery.

Clay Jones, who last month was awarded the 2025 Babin Award for local cartooning, suffered a stroke last week that has partially paralyzed his right side, which includes his drawing hand. Like many other cartoonists, Clay is a freelancer whose income is tied directly to his ability to draw cartoons. He won’t be able to work while he recovers from his stroke.

That’s why we need your help.

The AAEC leadership has set up a GoFundMe fundraiser for Clay to help him through his recovery and rehab. Clay is a fearless cartoonist, and as a member of the AAEC board of directors, he’s taken an active role in helping shape this organization’s future.

You can find the GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/clayjones

If you have the financial ability to do so, please donate to Clay’s GoFundMe page. And even if you can’t donate, please share the GoFundMe link through your social media networks, or encourage your followers to subscribe to Clay's Substack, claytoonz.substack.com. Anything and everything helps.

These are challenging times for editorial cartooning. We have to look out for one another. Our voices are too important to lose. So please help one of our own while he recovers his.

The widget was supposed to show up there, but somehow it doesn't appear on my computer. Maybe it will on yours. If not, you can follow this link.

A Letter from the Editor

From time to time, I devote these Graphical History Tours to reports of books I have recently bought.

Having taken my sister to the airport in Milwaukee this week, I was obliged to stop in at the Renaissance Book Store in the concourse. I frequently find old books of editorial cartoons there, and this visit was no exception.

Cover cartoons by Karl Hubenthal, Paul Conrad, Robert Graysmith, and Jeff MacNelly

The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year — 1974 is one that was not already in my collection, so I had to bring it home. The cartoons are from 1973: the year the U.S. withdrew from the Vietnam War; the Watergate scandal burst wide open; Spiro Agnew resigned the vice presidency; Syria and Egypt attacked Israel; the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an oil embargo on Western Europe, Canada, and the United States, resulting in a severe energy crisis; and U.S. troops massacred Native American protesters at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

It was also the year the Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade, but there is no mention of it in this particular book.

I was really struck, however, by the book's forward, written by Washington Star-News editor Newbold Noyes. In light of the state of newspaper editorial cartooning these days, I'd like to quote it in full; so aside from a few cartoons from the book and my credit lines, the rest of today's GHT is Mr. Noyes:

"The Boss Says Make It Funny" by Bill Crawford (for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Sept. 4, 1973) on back cover

So far as an editor is concerned, the cartoon on his editorial page is that white-hot point of light beneath the burning glass. Here the newspaper's editorial statement is reduced to its simplest and strongest terms. More readers are likely to register the cartoonist's message, on any given day, than any other commentary. For better or worse, this pictorial comment comes closer to embodying the spirit of the newspaper than any other element in its pages.

So far as the editor is concerned, this is not always for the better. We have to be candid about this: for an editor, the power focused in the cartoonist's penpoint is something of a problem. When editors meet, the things that really are on their minds do not appear on the formal agenda — they surface in talk around the bar.

When the board of the American Society of Newspaper Editors met the other day on the shores of Arizona's Lake Powell, its members did not devote their first cocktail session to the beauties of the second largest man-made body of water, or even to Watergate. They talked instead about the Los Angeles Times' decision to move its editorial cartoon to the the "op-ed" page, that kaleidoscope of other opinion appearing opposite the newspaper's own editorials.

"Alas, Poor Agnew..." by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1973

Was the switch being made on general principles, or because of some clash of opinion on a major issue developing between editor and cartoonist? Was it a good idea for the rest of us? How about moving the cartoon off the editorial page only on those days when it evidenced a major departure from the views of the editor? How would their cartoonist [Paul] Conrad react?

Evidently, the Times' just-announced move touched a sensitive and responsive nerve in editorial circles.

The problem, of course, was not a new one; it was just that here was somebody doing something about a situation that, subliminally, had perplexed us all. I hearkened back, as the talk rolled on, to the time when our morning competitor in Washington warmly supported Eisenhower in its editorial columns, while its editorial cartoonist [Herblock] persisted in presenting the General as the very personification of Simple Simon. The town took wry delight in the Post's embarrassment, but the newspaper somehow survived. It seems to me the cartoonist went on a vacation, or something.

I am going into all this not to suggest that editorial cartoons no longer belong on editorial pages (which seems to me a dubious proposition), but only to make one point: there is potency in this branch of journalistic commentary. A good argument could be advanced, I think, that the editorial cartoonists in this country have more immediate impact on public opinion than editors, or columnists, or TV anchormen, or any other group.

What makes a good cartoon? Everyone has his prejudices. I, for instance, happen to be partial to those that make a serious point with a humorous twist. In times such as these, however, when very little that happens is at all funny, it is fortunate indeed that a good cartoon can be sad, or bitter, or furious.

Some say that, because cartoons rely on over-statement or exaggeration — distortion, if you will — they must be basically mean. I don't agree; a number of my favorite cartoonists, including Gib Crockett of the Washington Star-News, are consistently good-natured in their approach. That quality should be no more unwelcome on an editorial page than it is in real life.

"Yankee Gone Home" by Gib Crockett in Washington Star-News, January, 1973

The essence of good cartooning, needless to say, is simplicity. This is true of almost any sort of artistic expression, graphic or otherwise, but in cartooning it is the name of the entire game. You cannot be subtle in a cartoon. You cannot be balanced. You cannot worry too much even about being fair.

The cartoonist produces his effect by over-simplifying — by stripping away all the qualifications, the "yes, buts" and "on the other hands," and reducing his message to one pure unequivocal statement.

That, obviously, makes editors uneasy. One such pure, unequivocal statement says far more to more readers than a thousand carefully considered, nicely balanced words. So in addition to being more influential with public opinion in general, the cartoonist may even have more effect than the editor on the public's perception of his newspaper's stance.

This is why the editorial nose is always out of joint in relation to cartoonists — more than usual these days, because of the unusually complex and critical nature of the issues we are trying to deal with. My own guess is that, despite their discomfiture, most editors will let cartoonists continue to dominate the editorial pages, just as they have all along.

The reason, in one pure and unequivocal statement, is that the editorial page would be so damn dull without its cartoon!

—NEWBOLD NOYES, November 5, 1973

"And That's the Truth" by Mike Peters in Dayton Daily News, August 16, 1973

Q Toon; A War of Words

One would think that having his partner caught up for months in the Absolutely Corrupt Trump Regime's lawless concentration camp program would have soured MAGA Max's enthusiasm for anything associated with the Felon-In-Chief.

But then how would I be able to address the very destruction of the Republic in an editorial cartoon feature that is supposed to be about LGBTQ+ issues?

I created these two as a device to discuss the sharp political divisions in this country, which the present regime has worked diligently to widen.

Strike that. What the present administration is working overtime to achieve is not to widen political divisions, but to crush dissent. Pardoning the January 6 rioters who sought to overthrow the duly elected government in Trump's name, purging everyone in the Justice Department and law enforcement who worked to bring them to justice; strong-arming any media into obsequious servility that might challenge their distortion of the truth; hauling those who have ever stood up to him into court on trumped up charges; the mawkish spectacle of cabinet officials assembled before cameras for the express purpose of heaping flattery upon the boss — the Trump regime models itself not on our Founding Fathers, but on the worst tyrants history has to offer.

One need look no further than that mandatory assembly of all the nation's admirals and generals in one auditorium to be harangued by Trump and his martini martinet at the Department Formerly Known As Defense. Much attention has been paid to the military brass refusing to whoop and holler the way ensigns and privates will at these events, the applause lines that fell flat, and the meandering blather of a president who never has an unspoken notion.

But what was chillingly important about Trump and Pete Hegseth's diatribe duet was their central message: this regime is declaring open war on anyone, anywhere, who stand in their way.

Hegseth declared that this regime will "untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.”

Trump made it clear that those "enemies" include all American citizens with the temerity to dissent from his rule: "We have war zones on both coasts — blue areas. The real enemy is more dangerous than China, Russia… [it is] the enemy from within.”

"These people don’t have uniforms," Trump bellowed. "At least when they’re wearing a uniform, you can take them out... We can’t let these people live.”

Calling this fascism is not exaggeration, hyperbole, fear-mongering, or stoking division. And it's definitely not fake news.

It's recognizing a clear and present danger.

Like shouting "fire" in a burning theater.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Leo didn't have the opportunity to keep up with personal grooming while in Trumplinka Concentration Camp and ending up in Shitholia's civil war.

Now that he's finally home again, he can get around to a shave and a haircut.

Neither Here Nor There, Yet Everywhere

First of all, happy birthday to The Daily Cartoonist, celebrating its 20th anniversary this month!

It seems that your humble scribbler has been contributing his two cents in the comments section for eighteen of those twenty years, which accounts for my tally of 564 comments (or $11.28) in Alan Gardner's round-up of voices from the peanut gallery. I didn't quite make the Top Ten (by about 80c), but I did make Alan's Commentator Cloud.

As for my own little blog, it experienced a sudden explosion of popularity in September according to the Blogspot folks, although that boom disappeared just as suddenly at the end of the month.

I don't have any explanation for it; the webcrawlers from Singapore and Brazil can't account for all of the surge. It just seems oddly suspicious that (as of today), Monday's "sneak peek" of my October 2 cartoon has gotten over 400 hits, while the full cartoon has only received 71.

My better half tells me that he has started to get a warning message about European Union regulations when he tries to follow Facebook links to my cartoons lately. There are EU rules about advertising to children and the sort of data gathering spyware with which all the American tech giants insist upon infesting everything they offer.

Finally, here's that Charles Addams cartoon from which I swiped Uncle Fester last week:

by Charles Addams in New Yorker, New York, March, 1946

Now Is the October of Our Recycled Content

It's a gorgeous fall weekend outside, so today's Graphical History Tour will be spent rummaging around the files in my basement, leafing through cartoons I drew ten, twenty, thirty, and forty Octobers ago.

for Q Syndicate, October, 2015

I'll start with a cartoon of Senator Rand Paul that parodies a character in the 1999 film Office Space. 

A cultural reference in a political cartoon is a hit or miss thing. If you're not familiar with the film, you're not going to get the cartoon. (The same is true if you hadn't heard about Sen. Paul opining that LGBTQ people wouldn't face workplace discrimination if we'd just stay in the closet on the job.)

Since Comedy Central showed the movie about a gazillion times in the ‘aughts, give or take a few myriads, I figured this character would be recognizable enough. Besides, I think “That would be great” was a meme once upon a time.

By the way, there's a very obscure Easter egg in the final panel: the graph on the bulletin board forms the shape of a winged ox, the symbol for St. Luke.

All it means is that I was drawing the cartoon on his feast day, October 18.

Moving from movies to television (and back again), we now time travel back to 2005.

Reacting to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of marriage equality legislation, Star Trek actor George Takei gave an interview to Frontiers magazine of Los Angeles, publicly announcing that he is gay and in a long-term relationship with his now husband, Brad Altman. The interview also coincided with National Coming Out Day, but Takei had been out to friends and family for some time, and made no secret of his membership in various LGBTQ+ organizations.

for Q Syndicate, October, 2005

I took the opportunity to draw a silly cartoon of Takei as Sulu charging into a bunch of beefcake aliens. Lt. Hikaru Sulu didn't get much opportunity to battle aliens from Planet Thirst Trap — I don't think he beamed down to the planet where Apollo was cavorting around in a skimpy toga — although he did get to charge shirtless through the corridors of the Enterprise in search of a fencing partner.

2005 was before I started sending colorized cartoons for syndication, but for today's post, I thought it would be fun to color Ensign Expendable's shirt red.

Of course, then I had to colorize Kirk, Sulu, and Spock. And having done that, it didn't make sense for the aliens to be ghostly white... The hard part was knowing where to stop.

Eleven years later, John Cho portrayed Ensign Sulu in the third of the reboot series of Star Trek movies as openly gay, with a husband and daughter. While applauding writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung  for including LGBTQ+ characters in Star Trek Beyond, George Takei objected to his character getting a gay make-over.

The new post-Shatner movies having started out as a prequel to the original TV show, while involving the complete destruction of Spock's home planet despite it being visited in the original series, I drew another Trek cartoon.

for Q Syndicate, August, 2016

Rather than get one's mind utterly bogged down trying to make sense of Star Trek's multiverses and time travel and warp drives through hyperspace, wouldn't it be easier to accept that in the 23rd Century, humanoid citizens of the United Federation of Planets will not have a problem with a Star Fleet officer being bisexual, ambisexual, pansexual, or gender fluid?

Heck, even in Roddenberry's universe, hardly anyone batted an eye, visor, or antenna at interspecies couples.

In the real world, of course, dozens of stations would have jumped ship if Lt. Uhuru had gotten into a serious relationship with anyone else on the Enterprise bridge.

Moving on to October of 1995:

in UWM Post, Milwaukee Wis., October 26, 1995

Charles Snollygoster III was my stock Republican congresscretin character back in the 1990's: a right-of-center conservative who went along with whatever party orthodoxy was at the moment. The nursing home provision in the budget bill on which Rep. Snollygoster was about to vote passed the House but was rejected in the Senate, both controlled by Republicans that year.

Snollygoster originally had a left-of-center Democrat counterpart, Luke Warmish, who was hesitant to support Bill Clinton's health care plan and got tossed out of office in the 1994 Republican sweep. I never had reason to bring Warmish back, except as one name among many in a cartoon about political attack ads.

I never drew any Snollygoster cartoons after the Clinton presidency; if I had, I believe Snollygoster would have been primaried in the Tea Party elections of 2010 or shortly thereafter.

Jumping back ten more years:

in NorthCountry Journal, Poynette Wis., October, 1985

I've posted in this here blog almost every one of my cartoons from October of 1985, so here's this one again.

It's the first cartoon I drew for NorthCountry Journal, a monthly newspaper out of northern Wisconsin with an emphasis on environmental issues. The editor and publisher, Susie Isaksen, would send me the gist of the next issue’s editorial, and I would mail her a cartoon to fit it.

“Sorry, Charlie" was an advertising campaign for StarKist featuring a tuna longing to be caught and eaten, only to be rejected by the StarKist folks. We don't have tuna in Wisconsin lakes and rivers, but nobody had come up with a catchy, recognizable walleye character in 1985.

Recognizing my allusions was can be a problem from time to time: I based one NorthCountry Journal cartoon on the character Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, a hugely popular comic strip from the very first strip in November of 1985. Ms. Isaksen, however, had never seen it. To her, my cartoon made no sense.

In the past couple of years, I've drawn cartoons directly parodying a Monty Python sketch, a Saturday Night Live character, an Aesop fable, The Godfather, The Wizard of Oz, Cabaret, one of Sir David Low's most famous cartoons, and two or three internet memes. I guarantee you that not every person who has come across my cartoons has been familiar with each and every one of those references.

Such is the nature of our increasingly fractured culture these days. Once upon a time, it was commonplace for editorial cartoonists to quote Shakespeare, and expected every reader to catch the reference. Not so much any more. I'm not saying I would never base a cartoon on Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, but there aren't many readers nowadays for whom a reference to King Lear or Twelfth Night would instantly ring a bell.

And that's it for today's Graphical History Tour... until tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow!