Caricature vs. the Corporation # 06: The Modern Prometheus
"Huge angry mobs converged outside bank employees’ houses on Sunday afternoon to demand banks stop lobbying against Wall Street reform."
May 16, 2010, Class Warfare: Hundreds Protest Outside Bankers’ Houses In DC
"Dozens of noisy purple-shirted SEIU protesters stormed a Bank of America branch near the U.S. Capitol on Monday, forcing the bank to close down … hundreds of protesters from SEIU and National People’s Action merged at the offices of Democratic superlobbyist Tony Podesta, who boasts Bank of America among his massive client list."
May 17, 2010, Bank Of America Protest: Dozens Storm Bank Branch In DC
In 1882, Puck magazine protested corporate influence on legislation and the economy through a series of cartoons that warned of the dangers of monopolies.
Puck’s stable of artists included Bernhard Gillam, a conservative Englishman who was hired by Joseph Keppler the year before. The February 22nd issue featured a lithograph by Gillam titled The Modern Prometheus. It depicts Uncle Sam chained to a craggy precipice marked “MONOPOLY”.
The Modern Prometheus by Bernhard Gillam
[Prometheus was Condemned to be Bound to a Rock, where, until Delivered from his Painful Confinement by Hercules, a Bird of Prey was to Feed upon his Liver.]
Puck Magazine Centerspread, February 22, 2026
Chromolithograph, 18" h x 12 1/2" w
A large vulture, its neck ringed with feathers marked "MONOPOLISTS," peels away a strip of "LIFE" to get at Uncle Sam’s innards. A restraining metal belt of "DEFECTIVE LAWS " binds Sam to the rock.
Detail
A snake bearing the words "CONGRESSMEN USED BY MONOPOLISTS" slithers up the rock within inches of Sam’s leg.
Detail
On the ledge below, a "LEGISLATIVE ACTION" snail inches up the mountain. Hercules sleeps on its back as he holds a club with the words "THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS."
Detail
Many of the ills that afflict us are caused mainly by monopolists, who are allowed to order things pretty much their own way. It is monopoly that give us the disgusting bobtailed cars, conductorless stages, dangerous elevated railroads and collisions on surface roads. It is monopoly that makes the ring of municipal thieves in every city of importance in the Union. It is the power of the money of the monopolists that gives us bad laws, bad gas, bad food, bad office-holders, bad Congressmen and Legislators – bad everything. And Uncle Sam is like like the bound Prometheus – his liver forming food for hungry vultures, while there is no friendly Hercules at hand to release him from his bonds and misery.
H,C. Bunner, from the description at the front of the issue
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David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com
David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com | financial reform
— David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com
