This Week's Sneak Peek

  This is only the third cartoon I've drawn Joe Biden in this year. He really should get out more. 

I'm Just a Soul Whose Intentions Are Good

Earlier this month, I chimed in on a conversation about someone else's cartoon that was widely misunderstood. For that post, I redrew one of my own cartoons in a way that intentionally defeated its own point. For SayWhatBack Saturday, I dredge up a few of my own cartoons that, at least as far as some readers were concerned, missed the mark unintentionally.

I drew the above cartoon for the parody edition of the University of Wisconsin at Parkside student newspaper as a follow-up to an earlier cartoon that, I was told, many readers didn't understand.

UW-Parkside Ranger, January 17, 1985

The cartoon was about the New York "subway vigilante" Bernard Goetz, who had shot some African-American youths on the subway because he had felt threatened by them. There are many reasons, however, that this cartoon didn't work. The guns, for one thing, were terribly drawn and barely recognizable as such. Some cartoonists can get away with oversimplifying objects, but things still have to be drawn so that the reader can't mistake them for something else.

The composition of the cartoon risks confusing the reader as to whether there are two separate panels or four. 

Perhaps most importantly, the racist imagery in the thought balloons is likely to offend readers before they get around to seeing the men below them. While intended to be grossly exaggerated misconceptions of whatever the facts of the subway incident were, they could have left the false impression that I was advocating one or the other.

UW-Milwaukee Post, April 16, 1991

I remember worrying that this 1991 cartoon (I must have been still writing 1990 on my checks) featuring two Republican Congressmen from Wisconsin would be taken the wrong way, but I never did hear any feedback about it. When I went to the UW-M Post office with the the cartoon for the next issue, nobody could find the original of this one — the only cartoon original I never got back in several years drawing for the Post — so I guess somebody did take it, the wrong way, after all.

Manitou Messenger, Oct. 4, 1979

Way back in 1979, I drew a cartoon for my college newspaper about John Paul II's first visit to the United States as pope. In it, I likened his crowds to those surrounding the title character in Monty Python's Life of Brian― to which end I had people quoting lines from the film.

I thought that the film reference made the cartoon funny, but somebody wrote the paper the next week to accuse me of plagiarism. I suppose I should have written "Apologies to Monty Python" on the cartoon to explain that I was making a cultural reference. (And to Playboy for the reference to their 1976 Jimmy Carter interview.) 

 

Cartooning rules on plagiarism and cultural references are somewhat hazy. Perhaps I should also have added an apology to DC Comics or Todd Phillips or Joaquin Phoenix to this past week's cartoon just in case Brad Hendricks is still monitoring me for plagiarism.

Anyway, my response to Mr. Hendricks's letter included 17 reference footnotes and hardly a single original thought in it.

Just to be clear about one thing, I didn't remember Mr. Hendricks's name after all these years. I no longer have the original of this cartoon, so I had to hunt it up in the Messenger's on-line archives, and Hendricks's letter to the editor came up in the search first.

UW-Milwaukee Post, Dec. 8, 1994

We cartoonists don't mind people writing in to voice their disagreement with a cartoon ― we invite it. What really hurts is when someone tells us they didn't "get" the cartoon. Readers tend not to write "I don't get it" letters to the editor, though, probably for fear of appearing stupid in case everyone else thought the cartoon was hilarious.

I did hear from readers, however, including staffers at the Post, who didn't get this cartoon about House Speaker-elect Newt Gingrich claiming to have the names of drug users among Bill Clinton's White House staff.

UW-Milwaukee Post, Dec. 12, 1994

So I followed up in the next issue with this cartoon explaining the Gingrich cartoon point by tedious point.

Q Syndicate, April, 2009

Here's another example of bad execution. Acting New York Governor David Paterson took marriage equality advocates by surprise when he proposed legalizing same-sex marriage in his state. I wanted to point out how unprepared for this marriage equality advocates were; but by my featuring not them but Gov. Paterson in the cartoon, several readers were rightly outraged by an apparent joke knocking Paterson for being legally blind. I lost some newspapers over this one, and it was my bad.

Q Syndicate, December, 2012

Finally, returning to the topic of appropriating cultural references: please note that I was careful to include the proper apologies to all the original creators of the characters in this 2012 Christmastime cartoon. 

 

There used to be a weblog called "Editorial Explanations" whose author, Andrew Wheeler, called out confusing and snarkworthy editorial cartoons, and this was one of nearly a dozen of my cartoons that had him befuddled. Well, no wonder. Christmas and marriage equality have nothing to do with each other; but it was December, so I forced them into an unhappy marriage anyway. For that matter, all of the folks in the cartoon happen to be single, adding another layer of non-sequiturity.

There's a good chance of Hermey the Elf being gay, though.

By the way, even though I can recite just about any Monty Python routine verbatim, I have somehow still not actually seen Life of Brian. 

Q Toon: Dancing with DeGeneres in the Pale Moonlight

You were expecting maybe Kamala Harris? All in good time, children. This week's cartoon had a deadline before Joe Biden announced his running mate pick, so I've drawn about some entertainment news instead.

Celebrities are tweeting out about allegations that there is a toxic work environment behind the scenes at Ellen DeGeneres's daytime talk show.

Actors Brad Garrett and Lea Thompson are among the few big-name celebrities vouching for the accusations. By and large, other recognizable names are tweeting up in defense of DeGeneres: actors Jerry O'Connell and Diane Keaton, singer Katy Perry and comedians Kevin Hart and Jay Leno, for example.

For her part, DeGeneres has expressed disappointment that some entity involved in her show has failed to live up to the "Be Kind" ethos she proclaims.

And if she ever finds out who is responsible, heads will roll!

Look, I realize that people generally don't rise to the top in the entertainment industry without stepping on some fingers and toes on the way up. I've seen "All About Eve" too many times to think that every star's public persona is mirrored in their personal behavior.

Is this a case where judging someone at their worst is justified?

I'm reminded of the time that my better half and I went to see a live performance by a comedian host of a popular talk show. We were seated up in the balcony area; up in the front row, there was someone with a very loud laugh. Sort of.

I mean, it seemed to be a laugh, but didn't quite sound like a normal laugh. I've known people who laugh loud and uncontrollably, like a deranged donkey, and this was kind of like that. But it also sounded like it was a wail of grief of pain. It was very weird.

The laugh didn't always start up promptly with the punch line of the comedian's jokes, and at times blared out of proportion to some set-up line. And it was throwing the comedian off his rhythm. So he started making cracks about it. Engaging the fellow as if he were a heckler. Making jokes at the fellow's expense. And people laughed along.

Then the comedian broke from his routine entirely to confront the fellow head-on.

At which point the woman the fellow was with — his mother — explained that her son, a lifelong fan of the comedian, had suffered permanent traumatic brain injury in a vehicular accident some years before.

Well, that sucked all the air out of the room. The comedian suddenly looked like the world's most insensitive asshole. He put his routine aside and desperately worked to win back the fan, his mother, and the rest of the audience.

The comedian eventually found his way back to his act, but the show was never quite the same after that.

Ask most people for their impressions of that comedian, and, after they've tried mimicking his distinctive voice for you, they'll probably tell you they think he's a nice person. And he probably is. But talk to enough of his peers, and you'll probably come across somebody who thinks he isn't funny, or didn't deserve his talk show, or was rude that one time, or cut them off in traffic, or whatever.

We got to see him at an inopportune moment. Everybody has them. 

What's important is how many inopportune moments someone has, and how often. Is it a moment, or a habit? 

The truth will generally out.

This Week's Sneak Peek

 

Coming across one of my recent cartoons in someone else's on-line forum the other day, I was somewhat flattered to read among the pro, con and off-topic comments, "Gay boomer comic ? That aren’t shitty I love it"

But then I remembered that just about all of my favorite gay (and lesbian) boomer cartoonists have laid down their pens at this point. Some have moved on to other projects. Others are no longer with us.

 

I start to feel like a dinosaur now.

V-J Semisesquicentennial

Surrenderback Saturday marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, and I'll warn you right up front that there are going to be a lot of racist depictions of the Japanese in this cartoons. Depictions of Germans in American cartoons were nowhere near as grotesque as those of the Japanese, even by such progressive liberals as Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss, about which there has been plenty written already, so I don't need to add to it).

Coming into August, the American point of view was that Allied victory over Japan was inevitable but that the Japanese government and military refused to admit it.

"'Last Report from the Front' Honorable Sir" by Corte Madera (?), ca. August 9, 1945

Most of the cartoons in this post will be from a handful of U.S. cartoonists, and I'm curious about this first one. It, and some other cartoons I came across, appear to be signed "Corte Madera," which, as far as I have been able to tell, is a small town north of the bay from San Francisco, a command in Spanish to chop wood, and a peculiar name for a parent to have given a child. He (or she) may have been based in Texas, but that's just a guess.

"Is This Trip Necessary?" by Jesse Cargill for King Features, ca. August 9, 1945

The American caricature of the Japanese had him buck-toothed, nearsighted, and addressing others or being labeled as "honorable [such-and-such]" — whether warlord, ancestor, or even earthquake.

"Okay, You Win, in a Blast" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Aug. 10, 1945

Dorman Smith was the conservative cartoonist hired by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) to replace Herbert Block when the latter moved to the Washington Post. Smith was a much better fit for his right-wing NEA editors, and you won't find any of his cartoons offering any credit to President Truman for bringing the war to an end.

"It Won't Be Long Now" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 7, 1945

Cyrus Hungerford had been drawing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since World War I, and would continue there through the Watergate years. This cavalier attitude toward the killing of 80,000 civilians in Hiroshima (to which 40,000 would soon be added in Nagasaki) is by no means unique to Mr. Hungerford or his cartoons.

"The 64-Yen Question" by Harold Talburt in Washington Daily News, Aug. 6, 1945

Had the Axis Powers exploded a nuclear bomb over an Allied city, it would have been proof of German or Japanese barbarism. One American cartoon after another, however, proclaims that however horrific this new bomb was, the carnage was all the fault of Japan's leaders for, as Harold Talburt put it, continued resistance.

"Coffin Nails" by Harold Talburt in Washington Daily News, Aug. 7, 1945

As anyone who lived through the war will tell you, pursuing a conventional conclusion to the war instead of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. 

"The Old One-Two" by Melville Bernstein in PM, New York NY, Aug. 9, 1945

A more sanguine reason was that the Soviet Union had just entered the war against Japan, and the Truman administration was loath to allow a Russian occupation zone in Japan as it had accepted in Germany.

"There's Not Room for This and You..." by Jim Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Aug. 7 1945

None of which is to say that cartoonists were oblivious to the long-term implications of such a weapon of mass destruction. The atomic bomb is held by Peace in Jim Berryman's cartoon, forcing War to think twice about intruding into her laboratory ever again.

"It May Do What Nothing Else Could Do" by Dorman Smith for NEA, ca. Aug. 11, 1945

Dorman Smith draws the A-bomb no bigger than a bottle of wine, yet it seems to be enough to get Mr. Globe-head to swear off war for good. Perhaps the bottle of wine is an apt metaphor; "Never again" is a familiar vow on many a morning after the night before.

"Rather Terrifying, Isn't It?" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 8, 1945

Cy Hungerford's nuclear genie is more fearsome than Dorman Smith's wine bottle; he also acknowledges that our allies may have been impressed, but not altogether favorably.

"God's Atomic Power" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 15, 1945

Nevertheless, with the announcement of Japan's acceptance of Allied surrender terms on August 15, Hungerford returned to the optimistic jingoism that has long proclaimed the U.S. as God's divine instrument on Earth.

"After Effect of the Atomic Bomb" by Jim Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Aug. 11, 1945

The just and lasting peace would last for just five years.

"We Are Going to Win the Peace, Too" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Sunday Star, Aug. 12, 1945

Jim Berryman's father, Clifford Berryman, continued drawing front-page editorial cartoons for the Sunday edition of the Washington Star until 1949; the son held forth on the front page the rest of the week.

Jim Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Aug. 15, 1945

"And so, unavoidably, came peace, putting an end to organized war as we'd come to know it." ― Beyond the Fringe

"A New Experience for the All Highest" by Dorman Smith for NEA, ca. Aug. 17, 1945

Uncaptioned, by Melville Bernstein in PM, NY, Aug. 15, 1945

Q Toon: Upon Further Reflection

The North Dakota Republican Party overwhelmingly adopted a strongly anti-LGBTQ plank in their party platform this year.

Then the Fargo Forum reported on it last week; and ever since, North Dakota Republicans have claimed to have no idea how that thing ever got in there. Governor Doug Burgum, Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, Rep. Kelly Armstrong, Party Executive Director Corby Kemmer, Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, and House Majority Leader Chet Pollert, all Republicans, have all issued statements disavowing "Resolution 31."

We're not talking about a single sentence hidden in boilerplate about tax cuts for industrial rapeseed farmland. No, five "whereas" paragraphs call us sexual predators who pose a danger to children and the health of the community.

Chairman Rick Berg said in a statement Tuesday, July 28, the party's Executive Committee voted to disavow "harmful and divisive language" in a recently passed resolution that advocates against laws that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, often referred to as "SOGI."
That resolution contains the following statements:
"SOGI bills grant protection to voyeurs who wish to prey on members of the opposite sex."
"Research has shown that causes of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) compulsions are primarily developmental and not genetic as in color and gender."
"SOGI laws empower those practicing LGBT behaviors to assume positions of mentorships of minors often over objections of parents, influencing their emotions and thereby recruiting for their lifestyles."
"Many LGBT practices are unhealthy and dangerous, sometimes endangering or shortening life and sometimes infecting society at large."
The final line of the resolution says the party "opposes the passage of legislation which adds sexual orientation and gender identity to our Century code as protected classes."

North Dakota Republicans had cancelled their in-person convention this spring because of the coronavirus, holding a virtual convention instead. Party members approved the platform by a vote of 621 to 139. According to Mr. Berg, participating party members had no choice but to approve or reject the entire party platform via mail-in ballots.

I guess they can follow their President's lead and blame it all on the Post Office.

The Six Chix Contretemps

We're having a conversation in cartoonist circles about Six Chix this week. It's a daily newspaper comic strip which six female cartoonists take turns drawing. Last Tuesday's episode by Bianca Xunise provoked such reader outrage that several newspapers immediately dropped the strip from their comics page and demanded an apology.

"Six Chix" by Bianca Xunise, for King Features Syndicate, July 28, 2020

I was preoccupied with family matters that day, but I did notice the cartoon showing up on Facebook. Knowing nothing about where it came from, I passed it off as the sort of thing some Trump fans in my Facebook feed might think was pwning some libs. It didn't strike me as particularly humorous; dang near none of the anti-BLM and anti-mask memes do.

Once the Daily Cartoonist started reporting on the controversy, I learned that Xunise is a black woman, and that she meant the cartoon to be critical of the white woman speaking to the woman in the "I Can't Breathe" t-shirt. I also learned that Xunise apparently doesn't understand how anyone could misinterpret her cartoon, even though I am clearly not the only person who did.

To put it another way, let's rework the cartoon I posted last week.

I'm not going to pretend that there wasn't any room for improvement in this cartoon, but I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who mistook this as a cartoon in defense of citizens' rights not to wear a mask in public.

The cartoon is loaded with cues that are intended to combine to portray the maskless guy in a negative light. He is grotesquely distorted; there are little red dots spewing out of his mouth; the store employee is blown back by the force of his shouting; and to top it off, there's another character telling the reader that Mad Whitey is full of crap and dangerous to boot.

Here's the same cartoon, redrawn in the tone of the July 28 Six Chix strip:

Casual readers probably would not be able to tell which of the two characters in the cartoon they were supposed to sympathize with. Take out the first two sentences of the dialogue, and readers might assume that the cartoon is critical of officious millennial store managers.

If you have visited my blog before, you know generally where I'm coming from on most issues. If you've met me in the past four months or so, you've seen me wearing my mask in public.

But readers who pay little attention to the editorial (or back) pages where my cartoons appear, or who happen to see my cartoon shared or retweeted by some peripheral on-line acquaintance, don't know anything about me. The pink triangle gives a clue, but I could be a Senegalese woman with a poster of Glenn Beck in my bedroom and a basement full of guns for all they know. They have no reason to know what they are supposed to read into a cartoon other than what is in it.

It's not like I've never drawn cartoons that have been misinterpreted. That usually happens when I've stewed over and played with an idea so long that I forget that the reader hasn't been thinking along the same lines as me before seeing my cartoon.

The point is to learn from one's mistakes, apologize as necessary, and move on to make completely different mistakes.

On the internet, nobody knows when you're only kidding. No wonder the sarcastrophe is such an immensely popular punctuation mark.

At any rate, I'm not saying that Ms. Xunise needed to turn Mrs. Take That Silly Mask Off into a screeching homunculus. I imagine that's not her style. But I do think her cartoon would have been immensely improved and would still be running in those short-sighted editors' papers if she had allowed the woman in the mask to have a witty rejoinder.