Curtain Call at the European Theatre

Graphical History Tour steps back eighty years to the aftermath of V-E Day as seen by American editorial cartoonists. (If you're interested in their immediate responses to the Allies' victory in Europe, we visited them on their 75th anniversary.)

"Down Through the Third Reich's Thousand Years" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., May 22, 1945

As the Allies closed in on Berlin, their discovery of Nazi Germany's extermination camps for Jews, Roma, homosexuals, and communists shocked and horrified Western readers. Descriptions in newspapers and on radio of emaciated prisoners and mass graves would soon be followed by graphic photographs in magazines such as Life and Time.

The Russian photojournalism magazine Ogonek had published photos of German atrocities much earlier, but had been dismissed in the West as Soviet propaganda.

"The Same Old Dagger Trick" by Hugh McM. Hutton in Philadelphia Inquirer, May 31, 1945

Hitler came to power capitalizing on the "stabbed in the back" myth created to explain Germany's defeat in World War I. Militarists, nationalists, monarchists, and populists blamed Jews, communists, liberals, and homosexuals for having conspired with the enemy, wittingly or unwittingly, to weaken the spirit of the German people.

Hugh Hutton was not alone in anticipating a repeat of such excuses from the German high command. The trials of German war criminals were meant to demonstrate to the German people the culpability of their political, military, and law enforcement leaders down to the soldiers and petty officers below them.

"I'm No War Criminal" by Fred Ellis in Daily Worker, New York, May 13, 1945

Fred Ellis, in the communist Daily Worker, lent no credence to German militarist protests that they had nothing to do with their fascist politicians. His was a view shared by most citizens of Allied nations.

"When a Feller Needs a Friend" by Burt Thomas in Detroit News, ca. May 28, 1945

The caption to Burt Thomas's cartoon riffs on a well-known cartoon series by Clare Briggs. Here the Big Three have their separate ideas on how to raise the Post-war World.

Uncle Sam represents the U.S. in Thomas's cartoon, and John Bull represents Great Britain, whereas the U.S.S.R. is personified by its actual head of state, Joseph Stalin. The U.S.A. had a brand new president, Franklin Roosevelt having died a month earlier; and Britain's wartime coalition government was heading for overdue elections.

"The Bear's Revenge" by Harold “Tom” Carlisle in Des Moines Register, ca. May 19, 1945 

One could still find positive cartoons of Stalin in the American press such as this one by Harold Carlisle, acknowledging that the war could not have been won without the Soviet Union's participation, and the heavy cost its citizens paid repelling the German invasion of their country. 

If Carlisle's style looks suspiciously like that of John "Ding" Darling, it is likely because Carlisle worked under Darling as inker, and was here filling in while Darling took a day off.

"The Liberator" by Joseph Parrish in Chicago Tribune, May 21, 1945

Taking a decidedly dimmer view of our sometime ally in the war, Joseph Parrish notes that on the Soviet Union's way to Berlin, Stalin had installed puppet governments in the Baltic states. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia would be absorbed into the U.S.S.R., while Poland would retain its independence, if only in name.

My source for this Parrish cartoon was in grayscale, but it appears to me that the Chicago Tribune took to printing its front page editorial cartoon in full color sometime in 1943, until dropping the front page cartoon in 1970. I've re-colored the flags held by the Baltic nations, but I didn't want to venture guesses on the clothing and shadows.

"Hard on a Nervous Old Girl" by Edmund Duffy in Baltimore Sun, May 21, 1945

The Entente Powers had promised Austria-Hungary's Adriatic coast to Italy as inducement to get Italy to join their side in World War I. The Treaty of Versailles awarded the city of Trieste to Italy, which was less than the Italian government wanted.

Since Italy was on the losing side of World War II, the question of whether Italy should have to give up any territory in Europe arose. The late President Woodrow Wilson's position that borders should reflect the populations within them (rather than what regent had inherited what property) had gained followers since World War I, but Trieste and environs were populated by both Italians and Slavs. Drawing ethnically considered borders there would have required exacting precision.

(Europeans were much more careless about drawing borders in Africa and the Mideast. That's another story entirely.)

"The Phoenix" by Roy Justus in Minneapolis Star-Journal, May 17, 1945

I would like to have included a cartoon about Norway's arrest on May 10 and subsequent trial of its Minister President, Nazi collaborationist Vidkun Quisling. After all, his name entered the English language as a spineless traitor. 

This Syttende mai cartoon by Roy Justus, whose Minnesota readers might have appreciated the date, will have to do — although surely there must be an appropriate allusion to Norse rather than Greek mythology.

"It's Time We Got Started on a New Model" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Daily Star, May 24, 1945

Turning back to those British elections: it was generally expected that Winston Churchill would not remain Prime Minister, and would have to turn the government over to Labour leader Clement Atlee.

"It's Going to Be Hard to Explain" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, May 27, 1945

Even if Americans didn't understand why Britons would be so ungrateful.

Or how cricket is played.

"Same Old Monkey Wrench" by Harold Talburt, May 21, 1945

Turning to domestic politics here in the United States, Republicans in Congress wanted to return to the Smoot-Hawley brand of tariff policies that had precipitated the Great Depression. Protectionist tariffs were central to Republican administrations from the end of the Civil War and onward, popular with Wall Street, but controversial in the Midwest, West, and South.

Woodrow Wilson, facilitated by the 16th Amendment making federal income taxation constitutional, drastically reduced tariffs, only for Republicans to raise them again in the 1920's. FDR policies then focused on a mix of income taxes on the upper class and deficit spending, first to lift the nation out of the Great Depression, and later to finance the war effort.

"The Shape of Things" by Cal Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 31, 1945

Lastly, to get hyper-domestic about things, Cal Alley wondered what the future would hold for Rosie and her fellow riveters.

Churchill: A Life in Cartoons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A.G. Racey

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists are meeting with our Canadian brethren and sistren in Montréal this weekend, so today's Graphical History Tour celebrates the work 100 years ago this month of Montreal Daily Star editorial cartoonist A.G. Racey.

"The Firecracker" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, October 1, 1924

Quebecker Arthur George Racey (1870-1941) drew editorial cartoons for Montreal's Daily Star and Witness for 40 years starting in 1899. According to his 1922 book, Canadian Men of Affairs in Cartoon, he "enjoyed a position of unique prominence and popularity as a chronicler of the world, events and men. His work in the Montreal Daily Star is known all around the British Empire and beyond."

"Where Does It Come From" by A.G. Racey  in Montreal Daily Star, October 18, 1924

So let's start beyond the British Empire. From the Far East: Japan threatened to scuttle a negotiated League of Nations agreement on armaments reduction. Meanwhile, civil war had erupted in China, which factored into the Japanese government's reluctance to agree to military cuts.

Racey's is one of the least racist cartoons about the Chinese crisis that I've come across; admittedly, American cartoonists set a pretty low bar in that regard.

"Churchill and His Hats" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star,  September 30, 1924

In this early cartoon of Winston Churchill, he's missing the cigar and extra pounds that we usually picture him with nowadays. Apparently, in an era when absolutely everybody wore hats, Churchill was known for also wearing hats.

Churchill, representing Dundee, Scotland in Parliament as a Liberal, had been ousted from office in the 1922 election by candidates of the Labour and Scottish Prohibition Parties. With new elections called in October of 1924, Churchill would be elected again, but this time as a Conservative representing Epping.

The Daily Star was an Anglophile newspaper, allied with the Conservative Party in London and Toronto — Canada being a subject of the crown a century ago — so a prospective change in Tory leadership involving the wartime Secretary of State for War was certainly of interest to its subscribers. As it happened, Winston Churchill would have to wait another 15 years to take the helm of his once and future party.

"The Foundering Ship" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, October 4, 1924

The news dominating the British Empire, including Canada, were parliamentary elections called only nine months into the administration of Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, the first of his party to hold the post. One of MacDonald's first foreign policy actions was to extend official recognition to the Soviet Union, and to open negotiations with the Russians toward a treaty on Anglo-Soviet trade and the repayment Imperial Russian loans to British bondholders.

MacDonald's minority government lost a vote of no confidence over the "Campbell Case," its decision not to prosecute the Communist Party Workers Weekly and its acting editor, J.R. Campbell, for a July 25 "Open Letter to the Fighting Forces" urging British servicemen to mutiny in the event of war.

"And He Needs It So Badly for Propaganda" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, October 22, 1924

Clearly, Racey and his editors shared the view of Britain's Conservatives and Liberals against the MacDonald Soviet-friendly foreign policy, and his cartoons amplify the Red Scare issue that was central to the Conservatives' campaign.

"St. George for England" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, October 27, 1924

In case it's too small to read on your device, the spear wielded by "Conservatism" against "Moscow Dominated Red Communism" is labeled "patriotism." I do not, however, believe that Racey intended to call the "British Electorate" a horse's ass.

"Mad Clear Through" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, October 28, 1924

Four days before the election in what we would today call an October surprise, the London Daily Mail published a letter, purportedly by Grigori Zinoviev, President of the Communist International (Commintern), intercepted by Great Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. The gist of the letter was that normalization of British-Soviet relations would facilitate the spread of Communist influence throughout the British Empire, culminating in revolution by its workers and soldiers.

"A Hallowe'en Tragedy" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, October 31, 1924

The letter is now believed to have been a forgery, but it nevertheless doomed the MacDonald government. Conservatives won a decisive majority in Parliament; Labour lost 40 seats.

Racey's cartoon overlooks one other development with the 1924 election: the Liberal Party lost 118 of its 158 seats in Parliament. Formerly the main rival to the Conservatives, the Liberals have been a  minority third party ever since.

"The Mote and the Beam" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, October 23, 1924

With so much excitement over the British elections, Racey hardly had time in October to address any Canadian issues. (In case you're wondering, he drew nothing about the election underway south of the border that month.) 

He did squeeze in this commentary on Canadian complicity in subversion of Prohibition in the United States. Here the province of Ontario, nose darkened by "manufacture of booze," lectures a grinning Quebec, whose nose is stained by "sale of booze."

The latest cartoons of Arthur Racey that I've found were in January, 1941; he died on December 21, 1941 after having been ill for several months. Just as the Parti Québecois was coming to power in Montréal, the Anglophile Montreal Star shut down in September, 1979, unable to recover from a strike of its press workers. 

Desperately Seeking Moujik

My cartoon for Q Syndicate this week featured the return of Brittney Griner and a character meant to be her Russian lawyer. When I first introduced Товарищ Юрист, I remarked that I had some difficulty figuring out how to get across visually that he, a fictional character, was meant to be Russian, and not, say, an American consular official.

Back when I was a junior high school student showing an interest in cartooning, my dad enrolled in Palmer Martino's class in cartooning at the local technical college for the specific purpose of allowing me to tag along. In one of the books for the course, this was how you are supposed to draw a Russian:

Detail from Cartooning the Head & Figure by Jack Hamm. Grosset & Dunlap, 1967

Clearly, Mrs. Griner's lawyer would not be showing up at her prison or in court looking like that guy.

If one looks instead to the movies, there were Dr. Zhivago (portrayed by an Egyptian), the Russian ambassador in Dr. Strangelove, (Peter Bull, a Brit), the crew of the submarine in Red October (led by a Scot), and Vladimir Ivanov in Moscow on the Hudson (Mork from Ork). None of them look like Jack Hamm's drawing, either, so let's turn back to cartooning:

"Samson et Delilah" by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot in Le Rire, Paris, ca. June/July, 1917

At the time of the Russian revolution, cartoonists' stereotypical Russian was the fellow with the gun in this cartoon. The French called him Moujik (from the Russian word мужи́к, peasant.) There are various transliterations in English; I'm going to stick with M. Jeanniot's spelling today.

"Sharpening the Rusty Sword" by John Cassel in New York Evening World, June 23, 1917

Here's an American cartoonist's version of M. Moujik.

In the popular imagination circa World War I, the typical Russian wore his hair long, and perhaps unkempt — or perhaps neatly combed, as in this cartoon by Dutchman Louis Raemaekers.

"A Poison Gass Attack on New Russia" by Louis Raemaekers for Philadelphia Public Ledger Co., ca. July, 1917

More common, or at least more durable, in the American imagination was this older moujik by Ted Brown:

"Set 'em Up Again" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, Nov. 10, 1917

German cartoonist Lutz Chremberger offers us four versions of M. Moujik; at that particular moment during World War I, Germans anticipated that Russia's February Revolution would necessitate the Kerensky government withdrawing from the war.

"Aus dem Toten Hause" by Lutz Chremberger in Lustige Blätter, Berlin, March 16, 1917

At the same time, Germans had another, more menacing version of M. Moujik. Another Lustige Blätter cartoonist portrays the revolutionary Duma as a doll not to be messed with.

in Lustige Blätter, March 16, 1917 (?)

This less charitable characterization is dominant in German cartoons during World War II, even when trying to minimize him.

"Dies Kind, Kein Engel Ist So Sein" by Hans-Maria Lindloff in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Feb. 1, 1942

By the end of the war, as the German army is falling back all across the eastern front, Herr Moujik has bulked up considerably — he is even more menacing than Tsar Nicholas's plaything.

"Die Geöffnete Tür" by Ernst Schilling in Simplicissimus, Munich, Aug. 30, 1944

I notice, however, that he has lost his mop of hair. Just to confirm his new haircut, here's another from the late days of the war:

"Der Englische Koch..." by Wilhelm Schultz in Simplicissimus, Munich, Sept. 13, 1944

Contrast the brutish, balding German Moujik with one from the United States, an ally for the time being:

A Fourth for Bridge" by Melville Bernstein in PM, New York, Oct. 8, 1944

By this point, Moujik was something of a rarity in American cartoons. Russia was far more often represented by Josef Stalin or, if one was hesitant to portray Russia in a positive light, this old stand-by:

"He Hibernates Long..." by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Jan. 22, 1945

In this case, the bear is a propos; neither Moujik nor Stalin was known for habitual hibernation. As a symbol, the Russian bear goes way back, possibly to the 1500's. I do find the gratuitous "Br'er" in Carey Orr's cartoon a bit curious; but, having spent some time cartooning in Tennessee, allusions to southern folklore prolly came a tad natural-like to him.

Excerpt from "Suffern on the Steppes" in Pogo Peek-a-Book by Walt Kelly. Simon & Schuster, 1955

Speaking of Southern stuff, let's move along to our Cold War depictions of Russian folk with this example from Walt Kelly.

For "Suffern on the Steppes, or 1984 and All That," Pogo cartoonist Kelly shifted his characters from the Okefenokee to the Soviet Union for a tale drawn expressly for a comic book. To do so, he simply drew Pogo, Howland, Albert, Churchy and Beauregard in Russian costumes. He tossed in some 1984-style revisionist dialectic, a round of Russian roulette, and the occasional onion dome in the background, and Так! We're in Russia, Comrade!

"Bootstraps Gorbachev" by Pat Oliphant, July 22, 1991

By the sunset of the Soviet Union, Pat Oliphant's M. & Mme. Moujik were his prevalent image of the common tovarisch. Gone are Moujik's flowing locks, and hers are tucked safely away under her babushka. For all the reports in the West of bare grocery shelves, he and she nevertheless appear not to be starving.

I guess those bootstraps must be pretty filling after all.

Still, none of these images strike me as being quite right for my Russian lawyer character.

So let me rummage through my own cartoons for inspiration. Ah, here's a Russian couple my generation grew up with!

for Q Syndicate, July, 2013

Pish posh. We all knew where Pottsylvania really was.