Q Toon: That I Canst Thee Tell

We don't have Starz TV in our home, so I haven't seen their current in-and-out-of-costume drama, "Mary and George," a series about Mary Villiers' scheming to secure her son George as King James I's royal boy toy.

For the benefit of American readers whose knowledge of British history is gleaned exclusively from television, I have to explain that the Queen Anne in my cartoon is not the one portrayed by Olivia Colman in "The Favourite," but James's wife, Anne of Denmark. She was still very much alive when James began his dalliance with the young George Villiers; in fact, it is thought that she promoted his rise as a way of getting rid of James's then favourite, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset.

Maybe that's in the Starz TV version. I suppose it ought to be. 

Now, if you are following the Starz TV series, here's your warning of spoilers ahead.

One might suppose that by the time she was hooking her husband up with a new boyfriend, Anne's marital relationship had withered to the point that I imagine that she had her own "I Really Don't Care Do U" jacket. The royal couple had been living separately since the death of their youngest child, Sophia. (Four of their seven children died in infancy; the oldest, Henry, died of typhoid at the age of 18). 

Once Villiers entered the picture, James seems to have almost forgotten that Anne even existed. She was very sick for several years before her death in 1619, but he paid only three visits to her at Somerset House during her illness.

Villiers's ascendency lasted beyond James's reign and into that of the king's surviving son, Charles I. Rumor had it that his affair with the reigning monarch continued as well.

Villiers was a trusted adviser to Charles, but an incompetent one. As Lord Admiral and de facto Foreign Minister, Villiers launched a naval expedition to wrest Cádiz from Spain, but his ill-equipped, poorly manned ships led by a soldier who with no naval experience never got past Holland. He then offended English Protestants by giving support to Catholic France against the Protestant Huguenots in hopes of enlisting France's help against Spain. France instead made peace with Spain, and Villiers then turned English troops in defense of the Huguenots. He was forced into a humiliating and costly retreat.

While organizing a fleet to aid the Huguenots (a third attempt), Villiers was stabbed to death by a disgruntled army officer, John Felton, on August 23, 1638. King Charles was greatly grieved, but Parliament was greatly relieved and hailed Felton as a hero. Villiers's death, however, occasioned improvement in Charles's marital relations with his Queen, Henrietta Maria of France, and they started getting serious about conceiving some eventual heirs.

A decade later, defeated in the English Civil War, Charles was accused of treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of the country. Clinging to his father's credo of the Divine Right of Kings, he protested that no court had jurisdiction over him because "the King can do no wrong," and refused to defend himself at trial. He was convicted, sentenced, and beheaded in January of 1649, aged 48.

Present British monarchs are descendants of Charles's only surviving sibling, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia by her 1613 marriage to Frederick V.

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Okay, you folks who didn't want to have "Mary & George" spoiled can resume reading now.

Trying to put 17th-Century English grammar in the mouths of the palace gossipers in today's cartoon, I puzzled over how to conjugate a third-person present tense verb in that final panel. Wikipedia wasn't giving me clear answers — strong verb? weak verb?  I couldn't think of a sentence in Shakespeare's œuvre that would help, although there must be one.

The obvious source, of course, would be the King James Version of the Bible, so I looked up the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5.

In my Bible, third person singular verbs are conjugated the same way they are today: that is, using the most basic form of a regular verb. "They who hunger and thirst." "When men revile you." How about an irregular verb? Again and again, "Blessed are they."

Doesn't that seem wrong? In other European languages with which I'm familiar, third person plural verbs always have a suffix unique from the other conjugations. (Even in French, in which the entire suffix is silent.)

Anybody got a first printing KJV out there?

Q Toon: Quiet Cate

You'll have to pardon me for not drawing turkeys and pilgrims today. This week's cartoon concerns a curious statement by actress Cate Blanchett, which probably requires some explanation:

Discussing Carol, her new film based on Patricia Highsmith's novel The Price of Salt, which chronicles a love affair between two women in 1950s New York City, Blanchett told the press at Cannes that Carol’s “sexuality is a private affair,” adding with perceptible disdain: “What happens these days is if you are homosexual, you have to talk about it constantly; it has to be the only thing; you have to put it before your work, before any other aspect of your personality.” Perhaps Blanchett was decrying conservative culture’s obsessive focus on sexual identity over other meaningful aspects of personhood. Or perhaps not. In the Variety article, her words similarly smacked of scorn: “[Carol’s] sexuality isn't politicized. I think there are a lot of people that exist ... who don’t feel the need to shout it from the rafters.” 

I wouldn't suggest any particularly deep reading into this week's Q Syndicate cartoon, aside from the trivial fact that the name of my fictional late-night TV host is based on the Spanish and French words for "chat."

When I drew this cartoon, I had no idea that one Justin Bieber would be a no-show on Colbert's show, so that's neither here nor there, too.

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Have a happy Thanksgiving, and don't overdose on football or L Triptophan!

Q Toon for LGBT History Month

When it came time to draw this week's Q Syndicate cartoon over the weekend, I just couldn't get enthused by any of the stories then in the news. Instead, I'm observing LGBT History Month and reaching back a little bit further in time.

So John had to settle for a fling with William Rufus King instead.

Q Toon: The Stonewall Boycott

This week's cartoon goes far afield from the centers of media attention, so let's start with the back story.

Next month, director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012)  is coming out with a movie, Stonewall, about the gay uprising that broke out when police raided a gay bar on the night of Judy Garland's death in June, 1969. According to Emmerich, the film is a “compelling, fictionalised drama of those days centering on homeless LGBT youth.” Imdb.com has this synopsis:

The plot revolves around the 1969 Stonewall Riots, the violent clash that kicked off the gay rights movement in New York City. The drama centers on Danny Winters [Jeremy Irvine], who flees to New York, leaving behind his sister [Joey King]. He finds his way to the Stonewall Inn, where he meets Trevor [Jonathan Rhys Meyers] before catching the eye of Ed Murphy [Ron Perlman], manager of the Stonewall. He colludes with corrupt police [Matt Craven] and exploits homeless youth [Caleb Landry Jones -- okay, I'm just guessing on that one].

Publicity image from "Stonewall," the movie. Looks like a musical number.

The problem some LGBT activists have with the movie is that it appears to center on a white, "cisgender" (as opposed to "transgender") male character. Pat Cordova-Goff, described as "a trans activist feminine person of color," launched an on-line petition to boycott the movie, signed by over 23,000 persons as of yesterday:

From the previews alone, queer folks have gathered that the centralized character is a white cis gay man. (WHY?) From the previews alone, queer folks have gathered that not many people of color are even in the film. (WHY?) To make this short, we have also gathered that white folks are being credited in throwing the brick, starting the riots, starting the "gay liberation front" and also capturing the heart of a light-skinned transwomyn. (Of course we all fall in love with the white saviors. WRONG.)

Emmerich and Irvine have responded that the role of non-whites and transgender persyns is given its fair due in the movie. Emmerich posted on Facebook that:

I understand that following the release of our trailer there have been initial concerns about how this character’s involvement is portrayed, but when this film - which is truly a labor of love for me - finally comes to theaters, audiences will see that it deeply honors the real-life activists who were there — including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Ray Castro — and all the brave people who sparked the civil rights movement which continues to this day. We are all the same in our struggle for acceptance.

Irvine posted on Instagram:

Marsha P Johnson is a major part of the movie, and although first hand accounts of who threw the first brick in the riots vary wildly, it is a fictional black transvestite character played by the very talented @vlad_alexis who pulls out the first brick in the riot scenes. ... In my opinion, the story is driven by the leader of this gang played by @jonnybeauchamp who gives an extraordinary performance as a Puerto Rican transvestite struggling to survive on the streets.

Now, if you see any of these people wresting the microphone from Bernie Sanders, you'll know what they're shouting about.

This Week's Toon: Frank Kameny

Readers, the conventional wisdom goes, love cartoons memorializing the recently deceased. Editorial cartoonists, by and large, hate them.

Sure, there are cartoonists like Mark Streeter of the Savannah Morning News who draw obituary cartoons at the drop of a hat. But most cartoonists draw them begrudgingly, usually cranking out a cartoon of a single tear dropping from some object or logo associated with the dead person. Or St. Peter greeting the late lamented at the Pearly Gates with some catch phrase associated with the stiff -- even if the deceased was not a Christian.

(I heard objections to a cartoon I drew after the death of Meir Kahane that showed him storming away from the Pearly Gates upon finding that Palestinians were allowed in. On the one hand, I'm told that there is no Jewish concept of heaven; but on the other hand, where did Jesus come up with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus if the idea of someplace nice where Lazarus ends up were alien to his audience? How do you draw being in the bosom of Abraham?)

Matt Bors has drawn a cartoon mocking the obituary cartoons for Buddhist Steve Jobs which depicted him at heaven's gate. In coming up with a more Buddhist concept of the afterlife, it ends up being less than respectful of the dead, but cartoonists love this cartoon.

This is the second obituary cartoon I've drawn this year (the first being for Liz Taylor); in these cases and several others, I've let the deceased speak for him or herself. This quotation is from a 1965 essay by Frank Kameny titled "Does Research into Homosexuality Matter?" If you are interested in reading the quotation in context, you can find it in We Are Everywhere: A Historical Source Book in Gay and Lesbian Politics.

P.S.: Yes, Mr. Kameny came up with the "Gay Is Good" motto years after he picketed the White House. His picket that day was nowhere near as pithy.

Q toon: San Diego Pride

Laudatory cartoons are rarely ever funny, or even clever. Some occasions, however, call for them, and the participation in Saturday's LGBT pride parade in San Diego of active duty military personnel is one such occasion.

A poster on the LGBT Weekly article points out that a contingent of active duty military personnel marched in a LGBT pride parade in New York in 1975. Marchers included Air Force TSgt. Leonard Matlovich, who made the cover of Time magazine that September for his pioneer efforts to get the military to accept gay and lesbian service members. So, yes, the San Diego marchers are not the first, even if they are the first in over a generation.

Today's marchers can see the light at the end of the tunnel of Don't Ask Don't Tell -- a policy that wouldn't even begin until 18 years after the 1975 march. Whatever promise the marchers with Sgt. Matlovich may have seen in the heady days of the sexual revolution (they couldn't know that darker days lay ahead of them), there is cause for celebration this year.

I don't think our lesbian and gay service members will have to wait 36 years to take part in their third pride parade.

Q Toon: The Prehistoric Gay Dude

Turning to one of the lighter stories in the news, we learn this week that anthropologists unearthed the bones of a male near Prague who had been buried 5,000 years ago in a manner that was typical of females of the period.

"We found one very specific grave of a man lying in the position of a woman, without gender specific grave goods, neither jewelry or weapons," reported the [Czech Archeological] Society's Kamila Remisova Vesinova. "So we think based on data that it could be a member of a so-called third gender, which were people either with different sexual orientation or transsexuals or just people who identified themselves differently from the rest of the society."

Initial reports concluded that the bones were that of a gay caveman. Naturally, many anthropologists have disputed that conclusion. In the first place, the cave-dwelling era was more than 5,000 years ago, and the term "gay" only dates from Stonewall (which was a gay bar in 1969, not a cliff face where cavemen went to cruise each other). From CNN:

[W]hile acknowledging the "unusual" circumstances of the burial, [UW-Madison associate professor of anthropology John] Hawks said there is no way you can tell someone is homosexual by examining a skeleton.

Instead, the possibility of a third-gender grave -- as outlined by the archaeologists -- is more plausible, he said, noting that some cultures have a third category where, in some cases, men may have feminine characteristics or roles.

So I apologize to any anthropologists, insurance spokesneanderthals and editorialexplanations fans who object to my use of the term "gay" in the "News Item" box in this week's cartoon.

I should have written "queer."

Last week's cartoon

(click here to view)

Paul Berge Q Syndicate Oct 10, 2010 EditorialCartoonists.com

Last week's cartoon was drawn well ahead of time because I would be returning from my vacation on the day that I would ordinarily be drawing the syndicated cartoon. If not for jet lag, I suppose I could have pushed myself to whip off something more timely, but honestly, I could barely stay awake through the afternoon and evening. (Then I woke up around 1:30 a.m. and could hardly get back to sleep. I might as well have gone down to my drawing board after all.)

My editors suggested that I draw something in consideration of October being LGBT history month. With all that might have inspired me from Alexander the Great and James Buchanan; to Tchaikovsky, Rimbaud and Whitman; to the Mattachine Society and Harvey Milk -- I came up with this piece of fluff.

In this age of Manhunt and on-line chat, there may be a lot of gay people who have no idea what the "hanky code" was. Briefly, a guy would have a hanky sticking out of his left or right rear pocket. The color of the hanky corresponded to particular sex acts, and left or right indicated whether the guy prefered to be the one doing the act or having it done to him. There was no semaphore involved.

This cartoon gave me a chance to poke loving fun at some 1970's archtypes. One that I missed, however, was the drag queen -- sorry, female impersonator, or whatever the preferred term is today. The reason for the omission is that I wasn't confident of an image that would be quintessentially of the era. Barbra Streisand? Bette Midler?
Wonder Woman?