Above, I break from my norm of presenting 80+ year old cartoons, to hilight the cover of the December 19th, 1994 issue of Time magazine, which pictured then-newly risen Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, as Uncle Scrooge (not a reference to the Donald Duck character, but, rather, meant as a merging Uncle Sam with Charles Dickens’ Scrooge). Shown clutching Tiny Tim’s crutch, which Newt assumably snapped in half. This is (hopefully) the one and only year a re-presentation of this cover will be timely.

I recall an interview with the artist of the cover, saying how he was inspired by the old political cartoons of Puck magazine (or something to that effect), and was happy for the opportunity to create a cartoon in that vein. I would have provided a link to that interview (assuming it to have been on NPR), along with the artist’s name, but unfortunately, NPR’s posted archives do not yet go back that far.

To find previous posts involving Christmas Comics, click here.

Doug Wheeler

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