As previously established growing up I was pretty much exclusively only interested in superhero comics, though I was nondenominational in my devotion — I liked both Marvel and DC comics. Oh growing up I would occasionally get exposed to an issue of Archie here and there, but I had a visceral reaction to them. Maybe the romance stuff made me squeamish or the fact they hinted of a coming teen-age experience that even at age ten I strongly suspected was going to be a nightmare for me. Whichever, Archie Comics creeped me out royal; they were from a whole other world that I flat out refused to deal with.

But after a couple of decades I finally kind of grew up and slowly sidled sideways up to a couple of gateway titles from the publisher, like Cosmo The Merry Martian, Little Archie and (especially) Josie and the Pussycats. Then a switch got flipped in my head and not only did I start reading and enjoying, actual Archie Comics, but I started working my way through his many imitators. But I quickly found, much to my surprise, that he was a character who was, literally, almost without rival(s).

Leave us not kid ourselves; there have been a metric ton of teen titles, almost all of which totally owe their existence to Archie Andrews, but most of them have featured female leading characters. Maybe it was because they realized that the actual star of the Archie Comics wasn’t Archie but the girls, Betty and Veronica. Or they were trying to appeal to the then large female readership of comics, as well as the men who liked looking at drawings of pretty girls. But regardless the number of male characters who dared to challenge the grand red head head to head were fairly far and few between, and those who managed to do it for more than a handful of issues were rarer still.

The most successful ones oddly enough both came from DC. Growing up I only knew Binky and Buzzy from their sporadic appearances in the Public Service Announcement type pages found in 60′s DC Comics.

But even with two such unique (and highly unlikely names) at the time I really couldn’t tell them apart. Then I finally figured it out:

One was blonde, one wasn’t.

But seriously, for those similarly afflicted it goes something like this:

Buzzy was DC’s first teen character, running 77 issues from 1945 to 1958. Originally he was very much a character of his time, a ‘hep’ jive talking musician obsessed with records and playing the trumpet and drawn by George Storm in an altogether idiosyncratic style. From Buzzy #1:

But everything that was original about Buzzy was soon flattened out when Storm was replaced by a perfectly competent artist named Graham Place. There was never anything exactly wrong with this version of Buzzy; he still played his horn and Mr. Gruff remained a dead ringer for Major Hoople from the comic strip Out Our Way. They were perfectly acceptable wholesome teen adventures that were, like most DC comics of this era, nonthreatening and reassuring. Which I know doesn’t sound like much but the older I get the better nonthreatening and reassuring looks.

Here’s a story from Buzzy #60 featuring the most interesting thing about Buzzy, his resident ‘Reggie’ Wolfie, who to me looks like he was intended to be a caricature of comedian Bob Hope. But I can’t swear to it.

And that’s more than enough for Part 1. Part 2 to follow almost immediately.

In 1932, three years after the start of Great Depression I — the GOP, whose policies helped destroy the world economy, were seeking to re-elect Republican President Herbert Hoover. Hoover had been in office less than a year when the Stock Market collapsed — so to blame him would not be exactly fair — it would be more appropriate to point towards his predecessor — the eight prior years under Republican President Warren G. Harding, and his Republican-controlled Congress. Unlike today’s situation, in which Republicans wrecked the economy after eight years, then instantly dumped their handiwork on a Democratic President — in 1929, we were in the ninth year of successive Republican Presidential rule, and they were stuck with the problems they had created for three more years. For three-and-a-half years (late 1929 thru early 1933), Herbert Hoover and the Republicans, got to apply their economic theories and approach — basically the same ideology and approach they today say will get us out of the current Republican-caused Great Depression II - and the result of following their ideas, was that the Depression got even worse.

Despite their obvious failure, when it came to the Presidential Campaign of 1932Republicans attempted to push their same old/current old ideas as being the solution (that the majority saw through it, was not because Americans were smarter than, but because Republicans then hadn’t escaped their mess by quickly handing it off to the Democrats, so they weren’t able to play on the short memories and attention spans of the masses).

Below, old Puck magazine cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper — still yet active — parodied Herbert Hoover’s and the GOP’s campaign strategy, in a series of single panel cartoons titled ‘Erbie and ‘Is Playmates, which ran in the New York American newspaper. The New York Democratic Committee collected several of Opper’s cartoons, into a cartoon campaign pamphlet, also published by the New York American. In below’s example from that booklet, Hoover is shown giving the marching orders to the Republican press, speakers, and campaign managers, to all tell the same story (if you thought “political spin” was a recent invention — sorry). Hoover tells them to “…use the old ballyhoo of four years ago! It might fool the Country again!” (Does this sound familiar??)

Click on the below cartoon, to open a larger version.

This past Spring and Summer, I wrote some previous posts involving Herbert Hoover and cartoons from his period. Rather than re-hash or re-post them for those who might not have seen them, I am below providing links to those articles. To access these articles, click on the below pictures.

Click on the below left picture - the cover of the 1928 Republican Presidential Campaign cartoon booklet, Pictorial History of the Department of Commerce under Herbert Hoover, by artist Robert Satterfield — to view several interior pages.

Click on the below right April 1929 cartoon by M. Talburt — titled All Right - Let’s See It Work — for an article showing a number of pre and post Stock Market Crash cartoons, involving Hoover’s handling of the economy.

In the Summer of 1932, unemployed WW I veterans camped outside Washington, D.C. (calling their camps “Hoovervilles”), rallying and protesting for a promised veterans’ bonus payment to be paid early, as they and their families needed the money. Hoover had the Army — using tanks, bayonets, and tear gas — drive the protesting veterans away. Click on the below three pictures to access Parts 1 thru 3, showing Hoover-era cartoons from pamphlets sold by unemployed WW I veterans to earn money in lieu of begging. Each part also contains links to Parts 1 thru 3 of the documentary film, March of the Bonus Army, detailing events of the veterans’ protest.

Click here to find prior postings involving Election Cartoons.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionCartoons

In early September 2010, Ohio Councilman — and Master of Communications - Phil Davison, gained his fifteen minutes+ of fame, for the screaming rant he thought would earn him his (Republican) party’s nomination to run for the office of Treasurer of Stark County, Ohio. To the credit of the GOP attendees (yes, I can give the GOP credit for when they actually make a good decision), he didn’t get it. But, that Phil Davison actually thought shouting for five minutes (with the promise of bringing his stump speech style to the people of Ohio for eight weeks, if given the nomination!), would gain him his party’s nod, raises the question of where he got that idea. Those who have been paying attention, of course, already know. From the conservative media — Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, the Fox “News” 24-hour Republican Propaganda Channel, and, from successful Tea Party candidates, with their Libertarian & John Birch Society fringe extremist roots. Shouting your points loudly, is a way to intimidate your opposition, to help conceal when your arguments are lacking in logic or facts. That’s one reason it’s a favorite delivery style of the right-wing extreme.

Click on Phil's picture above, to watch his speech.

Of course, this is a site about cartoons, so, the point in showing the above, is to compare Phil’s style to that of another political figure known for his ranting lunacy — Denis Kearney — whose stump speech style was parodied in the September 11, 2025 issue of Puck magazine, by Puck founder, cartoonist Joseph Keppler. During the “Long Depression” of the 1870s, Kearney railed against Chinese Immigration to the unemployed of California, passing several anti-Chinese laws via a Tea Party of that time — the Workingman’s Party.

Click on the below cartoon strip, to open a larger version.

To see prior postings involving Election Cartoons, click here.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionCartoons KepplerSr NYPuck

This is so cool it’s scary…it’s…

Below is the very first Dick Briefer Frankenstein story from Prize Comics #7 from December 1940. It is in a style very different than than either his later humor or horror styles. It has that immediacy, that force, that primitive strength of early Golden Age comics. Enjoy…

See more of Frankenstein, more of these very early rare stories, the later funny Frankenstein and the scary horror version of the mid 50s by going to all the amazing prominent blogs that are participating in Frightful Frankenstein Friday. One blogger has an interview with me, another has funny foreign Frankensteins from European comics. Some of the blogs have stories from the new book and some have stories that aren’t in “Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein” but from treasured personal collections. There’s even a romance comic book blog that has the Briefer story “Frankenstein’s Wife”! And one blog has a contest giving away two copies of the book! All the blogs have fascinating stuff, check each one of them ‘em out below-you’ll scream with delight!

And Everything Else Too

Blog of Frankenstein

Cartoon Snap!

Comicrazys

Four-Color Shadows

Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog

Magic Carpet Burn

Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine

Random Acts of Geekery

Sekvenskonst

Sequential Crush

Stephen Bissette’s Myrant

The Big Blog of Kids Comics

The Comic Book Bin

The Fabuleous Fifties

The Horrors of It All

The ITCH Blog

Chris Reilly at the Comics Journal exclaims, “Briefer’s a genius cartoonist of both comedy and horror…and Yoe has put together a genius package for fans…Yoe collects these artifacts into beautifully designed and impeccably researched collections and sells them to eager consumers at reasonable prices.”

Rudy Panucci at PopCulteer gushes that the book is “lushly illustrated…the work is classic and the presentation is top-notch!”

Atomic Blast proclaims, ” I can’t even begin to boast about how thrilled I am about this release. Craig Yoe has out done himself again by presenting us just a gorgeous book of comic wonderment from days past. Dick Briefer’s vision of the iconic monster of Dr. Frankenstein, whether it be the more terrifying version or the extremely relatable humorous (both of them are presented in this volume) version of the monster captivates in so many ways, I can’t even begin to truthfully begin to detail the impact of this work to you. It’s just something you have to hold in your own hands to take in the joy that is masterful work of Dick Briefer. It’s fresh, fun and admirable…it’s my top pick thus far of the year. There’s still two months left, but I’m afraid it’s gonna be a hard publication to beat!”

Buy your Frightful Fabulous book here!

Jen Sorensen is a darling of the political left with her acerbic observations on the cult figures, rhetoric, and flawed arguments of Republicans and Tea Partiers. She also excels in wry commentary on cultural trends, particularly our technological obsessions and the impact of those obsessions on human relationships. Sometimes she combines both interests into one genius poke in the eye, as we see in this strip from 2009, Terminatrix, which offers a completely improbable, yet strangely plausible explanation for Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize:

Sorensen embraces the comic strip as her preferred medium for political commentary, but that doesn’t prevent her from dipping into the occasional single-panel approach to making a point. In Choose Your Own Health Insurance Adventure!, she invites readers to locate themselves in a flow chart. Polls seem to indicate that health insurance reform is actually quite popular with the American public, and if you’re wondering why, Sorensen makes the American reality quite clear while needling the naysayers. I’m sure each of us can find our spot on this chart!

Slowpoke debuted in 1998, and has steadily cultivated a devoted following. It has been reprinted in publications as varied as the Village Voice, Ms. Magazine, LA Times, The Daily Beast, CampusProgress.org,and Daily Kos. I first started reading Slowpoke in Funny Times, and many readers have enjoyed it through reprints in dozens of altweeklies around the country. Sorensen has won six awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, and won Hunter College’s 2010 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. Specifically, she is this year’s Grambs Aronson “Cartoonist With a Conscience.” Well done, and well deserved!

Despite her very busy and productive schedule, Sorensen found a moment to sit down and answer a bunch of silly questions from ITCH! I hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as I have.

What was your first comic strip/cartoon/comic?

My first “professional” work consisted a few short stories I drew for Action Girl Comics in the mid-’90s, while I was in college. Action Girl was an anthology published by Slave Labor Graphics that featured mostly younger women cartoonists. I also drew a daily cartoon for a year in college called Li’l Gus. Of course, I drew plenty of cartoons as a kid, so it’s hard to pick a true first.

What are you reading right now?

I’m reading the third book of The Tripods trilogy by John Christopher. I don’t normally read that much sci-fi, but my husband insisted I would enjoy these books that he read as a teenager, and he was right. Supposedly they’re making a Tripods movie, which will probably suck, but I’m still curious.

What is your guilty pleasure? At least, the one that really answers an ITCH!

Just recently, we bought these chocolate cookies at Trader Joe’s that are shaped like cats. I literally cannot stop eating them once I start — they’re like potato chips.

Musically-speaking, I’d say my guilty pleasures are the Bee Gees and ABBA.

Who was the first cartoonist/animator you met?

You know, I can’t think of any that I met growing up. Early in my career, I met Jeff Smith of Bone through a mutual friend. He was probably one of the first.

Which dead cartoonist/animator would you most like to meet?

I would like to have met Edward Gorey.

What would you say?

I guess I’d ask him how he had the patience to do all that cross-hatching. And I’d discuss his story The Unstrung Harp, which I love.

What has been the highlight of your career to date?

In the summer of 2008, I went to Denver to cover the Democratic National Convention for my local alternative newspaper. I had a press pass, and I blogged and drew cartoons about my experiences. I got to watch Obama’s acceptance speech in the stadium. It was such an intense week of work and fun, one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done.

Please tell us a little about your latest project.

I’ve just been working on my weekly cartoon and various illustration gigs. I recently drew a two-page comic for the BBC quiz show “QI.” It’s for their annual humor book. That was pretty cool.

Which old-time cartoon character do you most identify with?

One thing that comes to mind is an old Tom & Jerry knockoff called Herman and Katnip in which the cat, Katnip, would say the catchphrase “Hmmm… That sounds logical!” I used to say that when I was a kid. Also, I have always been fond of Pepe Le Pew.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

To stop time so I could get caught up on everything!

Four collections of Slowpoke have already been published, and I’m sure we can look forward to more. You can also read the new Slowpoke — and plenty of archived strips — every Monday at Sorensen’s web site. Slowpoke also appears at Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonists Index. Jen Sorensen is a wonderfully warm human being as well as a highly intelligent and entertaining observer of American political and cultural foibles. Indulge! You’re in for a treat!

And as always, thanks Jen!

With a week-and-a-half to go before the 2010 mid-term elections, record amounts of money are being spent on television adverting, 90%+ of it from anonymous corporate sources, their specific motives and agendas kept hidden from the American public. This, thanks to the recent ruling of our conservative activist Supreme Court, which threw away election reforms dating back to those of President Teddy Roosevelt, designed to reduce the influence of corporations buying elections in favor of candidates who would do the bidding of those corporations. The Supreme Court has brought us back to days such as that depicted in the below 1896 Presidential Election newspaper cartoon, depicting G.O.P. Presidential candidate William McKinley, his progress to the White House funded by Wall Street and Trust (Corporate Monopoly) money. (The cartoon is from a scrapbook of cartoons, so, specifically which newspaper it came from, I do not know.)

The anonymous corporate funding of campaign ads this year, is nearly all being used for attack ads against Democrats, in support of Tea Party / Republican candidates. These corporations have identified who will look after their interests first, and American citizens somewhere lower.

Click on any picture, to open a larger version.

Back in the day, corporate lawyers attempted to use the Constitution to protect the corporate buying of the government. An argument which lost after Teddy Roosevelt. The same argument that a century later, our Supreme Court, dominated by conservative activist Republican-appointees who knew the ruling would favor their own political ideology, supported - destroying one-hundred years of hard fought reforms.

Below left, by artist Herbert Johnson in the Philadelphia North American newspaper, and reprinted in the May 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine.

Below right, a similar and earlier cartoon, this time with Teddy Roosevelt holding a big stick labeled “For the People’s Rights”, who is clearly not buying the argument from the trusts/monopolies and corporation senator holding up the Constitution, that Corporate money-as-speech overrules the rights of the People. From the August 1, 2025 book Cartoons by W.A. Ireland, reprinting works by cartoonist Billy Ireland, which had appeared in the Columbus Evening Dispatch.

Below, Trophies of the Seven Year’s War, by cartoonist Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling, from his March 1910 collection The Education of Alonzo Applegate and Other Cartoons — depicting a different triumphal parade than we started with at the top — showing Teddy Roosevelt at the end of his Presidency, parading his captured prisoners, with the Trusts/Monopolies at the head of the line, and monopolists such as Morgan and Rockefeller just behind. T.R. was the leader/founder of the Progressive Republican movement. Senator and failed GOP Presidential candidate John McCain, for years presented himself as a maverick reformer in the mode of Teddy Roosevelt — up until he decided that the only way to capture the GOP nomination, was to dump the positions he had for years taken. Today, we hear little of such talk from McCain, having been cowed by the rants of Tea Party favorite, Glenn Beck, who has made “Progressive” a dirty word amongst conservative extremists, via Beck’s resurrection and popularization of long ago discredited John Birch Society conspiracy theories — presented as his own. (For Beck’s connection to John Birch Society ideology, which the Tea Party has now wrapped itself in, click here.)

Below, from the same 1910 “Ding” Darling collection, as soon as Teddy Roosevelt’s Presidency was over, conservative Republicans (such as Utah’s Senator Cannon, depicted here) were immediately trying to tear down T.R.’s reforms, to let loose again politics’ pigs, given such labels here as “Machine Politics”, “Special Privilege” and “Spoils System”.

Click here to find previous posts involving Election Cartoons.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionCartoons Financial Reform

We start today with a belated but nicely done review of Craig’s Boody! from a while back, this from the great comics creator and renaissance man, Stephen R Bissette, who knows a thing or two about good comics when he sees them.

http://schulzlibrary.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/boody-call/

Here’s a fun “what if?” conceit-What if Jack Kirby were still around to have done a Marvel-style comic book adaptation of the recent Quentin Tarentino film, Inglourious Basterds?

http://buchinsky.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/inglourious-basterds-jack-kirbys-style/

If ever a comic could be said to have been “of its time,” it would be DC’s The Hawk and the Dove which began its brief original run in 1968 by Charlton expatriates, Steve Skeates and Steve Ditko. Here’s a look at the first appearance of the characters.

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2010/10/not-birds-of-feather.html

The first masked superhero and still one of the most popular comics characters in the world (except in the US), here’s a great collection of covers featuring The Phantom, topped off with a fun story by Bill Pearson and Don Newton.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/10/phantom-begun-in-1936-by-lee-falk.html

During the Presidential Election of 1900, cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper ran Hearst-owned newspaper, the New York Evening Journal, the one panel comic strip Willie and His Papa, satirizing the influence of money from the Trusts (i.e., corporate monopolies) on the Republican side of the election. After the recent decision of our current conservative activist Supreme Court to throw away more than a century’s worth of election reform laws, opening up our democracy to owned and controlled by corporations, starting with the reforms of Teddy Roosevelt, we are again seeing our democracy for sale, via the pouring of hundreds of millions of dollars of anonymous corporate funding of attack ads against Democrats, in support of Tea Party/Republican candidates, because the corporations know they will favor them over the people. (Click here to learn how the Tea Party — whose members think they are anti-corporate — was created with the funding of two Libertarian oil billionaire brothers, who did it to put into office right-wing extremists they knew would push to remove environmental regulations on their industry.)

Since our Supreme Court destroyed reforms that began with Teddy Roosevelt’s, I thought it would be fun to look at parodies on the subject, from the election prior to that when T.R. became president. Willie and His Papa had four main continuing characters, all of whom are shown on the below left cover of the 1901 reprint collection, published by Grosset & Dunlap. The four characters are “Willie” (President William McKinley, running for re-election), “His Papa” (the Trusts/Corporate Monopolies, who are in charge of President Willie), his rambunctious and sometimes out-of-control playmate, “Teddy” (T.R., added to the 1900 ticket as Vice-President, because of his popularity coming out of the Spanish-American War), and “Nurse Hanna” (Mark Hanna — the Karl Rove of the 1896 & 1900 presidential elections — leader of the Conservative wing of the Republican Party, and known for his connection to the Trusts, and their interests and money).

In the below right cartoon, we see that Papa (the Trusts) has sent Nurse Hanna out with corporate money, for the purpose of buying Republican Votes.

Click on any picture, to open a larger version.

Below left, Papa is seen dropping corporate money into Republican Campaign Funds, and telling Willie, “See what a lot of money Papa is going to put in Willie’s bank, if Willie is good and obedient.”

Below right, “That’s right, Willie; you and Teddy must always keep step to Papa’s fiddle.” The fiddle the Papa is playing is labeled Money Power, to the tune “If You’re One of the Common People You Needn’t Come Round.”

Below left, Willie asks Papa (the Trusts), “What have you got those funny clothes on for, Papa?” To which Papa replies, “I’m getting ready to pose as the Workingman’s Friend during the campaign, Willie.”

Below right, Papa: “Yes, Willie, this is a rubber toy to amuse you and Teddy. It represents the Working Classes. See how Papa pulls its leg.”

Below right, Papa pointing to a painting of himself (the Trusts) standing atop Uncle Sam and the Constitution: “Yes, Willie, it’s a portrait of Papa, as Papa will appear before long, if the election goes the way Papa hopes.”

Below left, Papa/the Trusts now is dressed as Uncle Sam: “Yes, Willie, this is the new suit Papa expects to wear. There won’t be any Uncle Sam but Papa, when Papa has grabbed the whole country.”

Click here to find previous posts involving Election Cartoons.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionCartoons Financial Reform

Yes, it’s another in our continuing series of musical tributes to Barney Google. If you’ve been following along at home, you know that Mr. Google was enormously popular in his day, about as popular as the search engine that bears his name. With fame like that comes music. And I have a doozy for you today. It’s by none other than Mr. Bugs Bunny himself, Mel Blanc!

Mel is a little googly himself, don’t you think?

In addition to his career as a voice artist for Warner Brothers cartoons, Mel Blanc was a big star on radio and quite a recording artist as well. Here’s Mel’s take on the Barney Google song with different lyrics than we’ve heard before and several of Mel’s different voices. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you haven’t ordered your copy of the new Barney Google book, what are you waiting for? It’s available now at Amazon simply by clicking here.

Click the link below to listen

Barney Google - Mel Blanc

For non-partisan Monday, we present the twelve-panel comic story, Great success of Mr. Wobby in the character of Office Seeker, appearing on pages 401 & 402, in the April 1858 issue of Ballou’s Monthly magazine.

Click on each picture, to open up larger versions.

Click here to find previous posts involving Election Cartoons.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionCartoons