TO UNDERSTAND AMERICA, JUST READ THE DAILY COMICS & POLITICAL CARTOONS
Even though many of the major American comic strips are translated into many languages, they are all very truthful about real American life styles.

...A classic political cartoon

I have been saying for years that the daily American comics strips and the single-panel political cartoons are the best, non-verbal way to offer an on-going look at American culture and society and its many idiosyncrasies.

One can even look at certain specific strips and see what´s going on in our daily lives with their obvious exaggerations as they are regularly depicted on a daily basis.

Here are some examples:

As in the real world, prior to "Cathy", in Cathy Guisewite´s daily comic strip finally marrying her boyfriend Irving, all of Cathy´s focus for years was of the classic young single American woman´s obsession with dieting and of fighting her continuous issues to avoid gaining weight. Every year there were her continuous failed attempts to put down those office donuts or for finding an acceptable two-piece bathing suit.

Scott Adams´ Dilbert, strip continues to show the futility of the "high-tech working American geek", successfully dealing with his not-so bright, "pointy haired manager", his "work avoidance, coffee drinking co-worker" or the very smart and capable but under-paid female admin assistant.

Chic Young´s, Blondie, (Creative control now managed by the late Chic´s son, Dean) has shown since the 1930´s, the changes in the American home and of the eccentric actions of her always hungry husband, Dagwoood Bumstead. Dagwood has continued to be portrayed as the average working American businessman, working for a tyrannical boss and of his normal suburban American home life. And for the recent years, the Bumstead children have slowly been allowed to grown up. And Blondie, like many real-life American house wives, now has her own catering business.

The Keane Bros, Family Circus, has always been about the wonderful stories of little children learning about life as they grow up in a loving American home.

The late Charles Schultz, and his Peanuts strip, showed that the main character, Charlie Brown, would always be the "Round headed American kid that could never do anything completely right and that would never get to kick the football held by Lucy."

Gary Trudeau´s, Doonesbury, early on became very well known for its social and political commentary. It was and still is, always timely, and peppered with wry and ironic humor. As it was with the Li´l Abner and Pogo strips of years ago, Doonesbury blurs the distinction between the American editorial cartoon and the funny pages. In May 1975, Doonesbury even won Trudeau a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. It is the only cartoon strip to ever be given that honor.

Newer American strips such as: Adam @ Home, Sally Forth, Luann, Pardon My Planet, Baby Blues, Non Sequitur, Jump Start, PC & Pixel, Sherman´s Lagoon, Rudy Park, Zits, For Better or Worse and Rhymes with Orange are comic strips that continue to show different examples of today´s American culture.

And as with these accurate comic strips as exaggerated examples of American culture, there are a few that try to support the conservative and Republican view of the American way of life. One comic strip that seems to exemplify this view is Bruce Tinsley´s Mallard Fillmore. The very funny and affable duck named "Mallard", unfortunately gives everyone the "right-winger´s" distorted few of America. Or at least, it is apparently how Tinsley thinks it is.

But today, it is really the single panel, political cartoons that are offered every day on the editorial pages that amaze me. These are the offerings from those artists that have become famous for their ability to take complex issues and define them in very understandable views within one single, hand-drawn illustration. These capable political illustrators include: Tom Toles, Nick Anderson, Pat Oliphant, Tony Auth, Chip Bok, Signe Wilkinson, Glenn McCoy, Ben Sargent, Mike Luckovich, and Stuart Carlson.

For many years now, I have personally been writing what has seemed like miles of Op-Ed columns explaining how the conservatives and the GOP hate the average middle-class American. I continue trying to demonstrate how the right wing is owned by big business and in today´s big economic down-turn, they continue to vote "NO" on any programs or issues that would support the average working American. For the Republicans, extending the Reagan / Bush tax cuts for the rich is at the top of their list along with the killing of Social Security and the deregulation of every government program.


But today, those same very capable editorial artist and illustrators have that unique ability and a keen sense of how to make a multitude of these clear political statements in their drawings, and all are included within one single artist panel of only a few square inches.

This last week, the editorial artist and political illustrator Tony Auth presented such an effective single-panel that pretty much says it all regarding today´s Republicans and the current political environment. Mr. Auth´s single panel political cartoon clearly demonstrates what I have been trying to say for years about the GOP, the far right, and the conservatives.

Here is my written explanation of what becomes instantly clear in this single political cartoon and what Mr. Auth is trying to say.

DEFINITION OF A RECENT TONY AUTH CARTOON:

The cartoon panel shows a large, mean, obese and frowning Republican elephant type man-character wearing black workman´s denim jeans and a sleeveless man´s undershirt. The elephant-man has big arms and biceps somewhat like that of a strip-club "Bouncer" or the original "Terminator". In the drawing, the elephant-man´s fists are clinched like he had just finished hitting someone. On both of his large arms are bold tattoos saying "DEBT", "RECESSION", IRAQ", and "WALL STREET". There are also empty beer cans strewn about his feet. The caricature is definitely Auth´s version of a Republican mob-bully.

On the ground in front of elephant-man is a beautiful, but distressed, female looking up at him. She has obviously been beat-up by the elephant-man and she is still somewhat "dazed" from the beating. She is drawn as if she is crawling toward the bully, kind of like what a very loyal, but confused canine might do after being struck by their master.

The distressed woman is obviously a depiction of the American worker and the American voter-ship as a whole. Auth is showing that this "woman", is the American voter that has been so devastated by the effects of the savage recession and their loss of personal income brought on by the conservatives over the last 30 years. In the talk-balloon that shows what the woman is saying to the bully, she says, "Don´t worry honey, I´ll vote for you." And in the caption under the single cartoon panel it says, "It´s not easy to leave an abusive relationship." This small, single panel illustration says all of the above with one single glance.

Now that is a real example of pure communication genius.



And Mr. Auth is correctly showing just what the Republican leadership is attempting to do to the American voters between now and the November mid-term elections.

The illustration shows that the conservatives are continuing to say "no" to anything that would help the average American worker.

However, what it doesn´t say is that the "bullies" are following directions from their Washington lobbyists that are filling their pockets with money. And they are also blaming the Democrats for all the problems in the process.

It doesn´t show that they have no plans for helping anyone but the rich and powerful and that they expect the voters to blindly vote for their candidates even though they are the continued cause of the on-going problems. In addition, it doesn´t show that they have no answers for getting the country back on its feet and for developing more new American jobs.

As I said, to understand America and Americans, just follow the daily comics and the political cartoons. There´s a mountain of truth in these simple illustrations.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/184080
Copyright G.Ater 2010