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Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Rebirth of a Nation

Published: August 18, 2010 1 minute 8 comments

Ta100818

Some symbols are so standard that they can lose impact, but Tony Auth makes excellent use of both the Statue of Liberty and the Klan regalia in this cartoon.

I'm not as blown away by his labels — I think it was an unnecessary complication to tie in the GOP and the Tea Party Movement specifically, and it would be nice if the overall xenophobia of the current political climate was indicated rather than the specific attack on Muslims.

But I tend to hate labels on political cartoons anyway. The good ones don't need them and they don't help the feeble ones. However, since the Klan robes are so tied in the public mind to one particular form of bigotry, something was needed here, and I suppose the word "xenophobia" is a little esoteric.

And, in any case, this is a pretty good statement not only on our respect for our own system of freedom, but (in a symbolic bonus!) on the welcoming image we present to the world.

Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.

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Comments 8

  2. I admire artists who create apt political cartoons, but…Do they accomplish anything? My feeling is that those who agree nod their heads and have another sip of coffee; those who don’t agree ignore them. In a way they make me feel sad even while I admire the art.

  3. What was the name of the guy who did the front-page political cartoons for the /Chicago Tribune/ as late as the early 1970s? Labels galore.

  4. Gilda, the question over whether they should be called “editorial cartoons” or “political cartoons” is fading as they no longer necessarily reflect the paper’s editorial conclusions — largely because cloth-eared editors are not always sure what they are saying and will just pick the ones with “gags.” But they were once local and were once very much part of the newspaper’s voice, which leads us to the Chicago Tribune, once one of the great right-wing mouthpieces and …
    Mark, trying Googling “Carey Orr” and see if that’s who you mean. He only made it to the late 60s, but he loved his labels!

  5. Hm. The style might be right – although mostly what I find is his earlier work – but the timing (1926-1960) is wrong. Unless I’m misremembering (always a possibility) these ran while I was seeing the /Tribune/ on a semi-regular basis, which would have been 1970-76.

  6. Don’t ask me. I was going to college in the area from 67 to 72, but we ignored the Trib, which was rabidly and famously conservative. It had the better crossword puzzle, which we used to snatch from copies left in the snack bar, but we tried to avoid the rest of it.

  7. I was in Champaign-Urbana reading the /News-Gazette/ and the /Courier/ daily, and often picked up a Chicago paper or two to see more of the political news from there. That was usually the /Daily News/, but sometimes the /Tribune/.
    And when the /Trib/ editorial calling on Nixon to resign came out one of our friends, who rented a farmhouse west of Champaign (they raised malamutes), bought enough copies to wallpaper his bathroom.

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