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.