Cartoons about Politics

2012 “The Frog and the Scorpion.” Syndicated colored cartoon by Mike Keefe appearing in the Omaha World-Herald’s opinion page on September 10, 2012. Personal find. The three panels of the cartoon tell the traditional fable well. A good trip among supposed friends gets interrupted when the scorpion suddenly kills the frog. Why? “That’s my nature.” So Afghanistan is killing the country (USA) that was bringing it to supposed safety.

2008 Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton as Tortoise and Hare. Gary Varvel. Indianapolis Star. Unknown source. Obama as front-running hare is telling the slow tortoise Clinton to quit when he runs into a solid tree of negative factors. He finishes with “Quit!” just as he is being knocked unconscious. She smiles.

1996 Tom Toles, US News and World Report. Bob Dole and Bill Clinton as Tortoise and Hare. Tom Toles. US News and World Report. 1996. Unknown source. The plodding tortoise wants to talk character as the hare reads Playboy Magazine. The hare answers “Talking got me this far.”

1908 Puck cartoon cover “The Republican Hare and the Democratic Tortoise.” L.M. Glackens. Vol. LXIII, No. 1636. July 8, 1908. 10” x 13.7”. The tortoise says “If that chap only goes to sleep, I’ll win out by a mile.” Viewers may want to notice the tortoise’s hands. The two faces are very well done. Are they Democratic tortoise William Jennings Bryan and Republican hare William Howard Taft? Apparently Taft did not go to sleep!

1887 “Judge” Magazine cover for December 24, 1887. “The Grasshopper and the Ant.” “Bernhard Gillam, with apologies to Vibert.( Vol. 13, No. 323. Unknown source. This piece is a remarkable evidence of the power of tradition. La Fontaine transformed a fable inherited from Aesop. Vibert transformed a fable story into an anti-clerical indictment. Gillam transforms Vibert’s work into political satire. The central figures are remarkably faithful to Gilbert’s painting. The addition of the White House here makes all the difference! Am I correct in assuming that the “industrious ant” is Grover Cleveland? Might Lucius Lamar be the “mugwump grasshopper,” a former Confederate whom Cleveland got onto the supreme court by a bare margin in 1887?

1878 “Moral of the Russo-Turkish War.” Full-page cartoon in Harper’s Weekly, July 13, 1878. Page 553. Unknown source. Do I have my history right that the Ottoman gentlemen with a loan from Great Britain is avoiding danger and has left his Turkish ally to suffer at the hands of the Russian bear? For me, the upshot of this strong cartoon is: readers of Harper’s in 1878 knew this fable of “The Bear and the Two Travelers.” Life has changed since then!

1887 “Les Anmaux Malades de la Peste.” Ch. Gilbert-Martin. No 699. Nov., 12, 1887. Unknown source. Again here, a dramatic image by the paper’s editor on its front page is matched by a “Gazette” poem on the second page. Caffarel is the poor donkey devoured by the guiltier animals for his minuscule transgression.

1887 “La Cigale et la Fourmi.” Ch. Gilbert-Martin.Don Quichotte. No. 673. May 14, 1887. Unknown source. This dramatic cartoon by the editor on the first page of the paper is matched with a poem on the second page. Sorry, I would need to dive into what I am sure is fascinating history to do all the identifying that is invited here!

1883 “Le Cheval et le Loup.” Ch. Gilbert-Martin. Don Quichotte. No. 458. March 30, 1883. Unknown source. This dramatic cartoon by the editor on the first page of the paper is matched with a poem on the second page. Is Sigismond Lacroix riding the ballot box of universal suffrage to kick the anti-revisionist program of Metivier in the teeth?

1886 "Le Courrier Français," July 25, 1886: La Cigale et la Fourmi (Suite). $10 from journauxanciens through Ebay, Feb., '24. In a text by Raoul Ponchon with an illustration by Pierre Morel, the situation is now at the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The ant comes to the Cicada to offer to pay for a song. The cicada, rightfully resentful, asks what the ant did all winter. "I slept!" The cicada answers "Then work now!" Page 5 of the 8-page magazine, 11½" x 15¼". The cover cartoon has a more obscure reference to FK.

1886 Le Courrier Français, July 18, 1886: La Cigale. $10 from journauxanciens through Ebay, Feb., '24. This drypoint by Norbert Goeneutte strikes me as unusual in this respect: it has no other reference. Are we to think of La Fontaine? Are we to have a particular attitude to this decked-out chanteuse? I look in vain for a nearby poem or another further reference to help. Page 4 of the 8-page magazine, 11½" x 15¼".

1939 "The Fox and the Grapes." Reproduction of a cartoon appearing in Punch July 5, 1939. Bernard Partridge. Unknown source, perhaps North Country Books through Ebay, unknown date. I am a bit surprised that the fox here is not somehow identified, though everyone reading "Punch" in 1939 would know that the fox is either Germany or Hitler. I wonder if the clot of hair across the fox's brow is not an attempt to make the fox into Hitler. Partridge did a lot of Punch caricatures or cartoons for decades.