Mind Buck Main

Is Portland SICKO?

2007-07-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

Within a week of Willamette Week's Review of Sicko, and the Oregonian's Review of the Same, Michael Moore's film disappeared from Portland theaters. It now plays at only two cinemas city-wide, Fox Tower and Lloyd.

So I have to ask: Is Portland SICKO?

Forget what you've heard about Sicko being a work of propaganda. In the United States, we view universal health care as a specious system. So it more than hurts to watch Michael Moore's film and see how normal it is for the rest of the world.

This is a film about propaganda, for sure. The propaganda machine behind the government of the United States of America.

KING BLACK ACID

2007-07-22T22:33:00.001-07:00

King Black Acid is one of the greatest bands to come out of Portland, Oregon. Read this INTERVIEW over at In Music We Trust for a bit of history.

You can buy some King Black Acid over HERE.

Visit KING BLACK ACID on MySpace.

Paris Bitter Hearts Pit (Issue # 4)

2007-07-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

The PARIS BITTER HEARTS PIT (Issue 4) is available. It includes work by Adelle Stripe, Vim Cortez, Daniel Coleman, Steve Vermilion, Jessica Buck, Steve Ely, Glenn Fisher, Joseph Ridgwell, Matthew Coleman, Lee Rourke, Ashley Reaks, Chris Killen.

You can order your copy HERE.

Dogmatika Reviews FALLING FROM THE SKY

2007-07-10T20:28:00.001-07:00

Click & Read Dogmatika's Review of Falling From the Sky.

I was at the BROADWAY BOOKS reading on June 26th, 2007.

Scott Wayne Indiana's piece was cunningly funny, and I can't wait to read his upcoming novel, especially if he can maintain the wordplay he displays here for more than a hundred pages.

Santi Elijah Holley, also featured in Falling From the Sky, has a literary touch that is so tender and taciturn, he shows, simply through his style, how Silence is an affectation that obscures our concept of the past, present, and future with inauspicious consequences. It's as if the characters are somehow displaced from themselves, from their own lives. Yet for all of its calm, Santi Elijah Holley's voice has a depth unlike anything I have read in years.

Carlton Mellick III and Jeremy Robert Johnson, also featured in the Falling From the Sky anthology, are excellent writers. They read at the Salon de Merde in May, and both of these guys have a stage presence that rivals one of my favorite authors, Jonathan Ames. Whether you are a reader or a writer or both, whether you are into the literary-thing or not, this is fiction you can have fun with.

This anthology is filled with great stories from cover to cover. Move on to Dogmatika's review and then go buy the book. It is available at Powell's City of Books in Portland and Amazon.com. Or you can get the best deal in town and buy it from Another Sky Press.

CAPTAIN AMERICA IS DEAD!

2007-06-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

It's true. Just read the NEWS.

From the City of Strippers and Comics

2007-06-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

COMING SOON:

From the City of Strippers & Comics...

Look here for events and listings in the Portland area.

DOWN TO THE HUMAN LEVEL - an interview with Joe Sacco by Kristian Williams

2007-06-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

Joe Sacco discusses the humanity of war criminals, ordinary soldiers, and journalists.
Interview by Kristian Williams

Joe Sacco has spent the last fifteen years writing serious journalism in comic book form. With the publication of Palestine in 1995, he earned his place next to Art Spiegelman on the list of People Who Make Comics Respectable. Since then, his work has largely focused on the war in Bosnia, first in Safe Area Gorazde (2000) and then in The Fixer (2003). More recently, War's End (2005), profiles two very different figures from the Bosnian conflict -- Neboisa Seric Soba, an artist, rock musician, and rank-and-file soldier defending Sarajevo; and Radovan Karadzic, a Serbian leader indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for genocide and crimes against humanity.

I met up with Sacco in southeast Portland, where he lives.

Q: What do you want your readers to take away from the implicit comparison between the two people profiled in War's End?

Sacco: Wheh. That's a hard question. I want them to put themselves in the shoes of someone like Soba. I think the average American reader could relate generally very well to someone like Soba. The average American reader is not going to relate very well to a Palestinian in a refugee camp.

Q: What do you think makes the difference?

Sacco: The difference is familiarity. You know, here you have someone who's interested in rock and roll, who has the same kind of basic wants as we have as far as that goes -- sort of being a local big shot, impressing girls, things like that. It's often very difficult to put a reader in the shoes of a Palestinian because a refugee camp is very unfamiliar. And the reader might acknowledge that what's going on in a refugee camp is terrible, but they don't have a direct connection to it. So I think with someone like Soba, I mean, I just want the reader to be in that person's shoes and feel something for that situation.

As far as Karadzic goes, in part, I'm trying to be reflective about my own look at the war, and how I felt about the war -- sort of that shock, when you finally come across someone you really have demonized in your head. And while he might be worth all that demonization, you know he's just flesh and blood. I mean, you have to see the humanity in each of them in some ways -- or, in the case of Karadzic, you knock him down to the human level, being so ordinary, going about his ordinary tasks. I want to bring down that leader and war criminal to a level where we can see him, which to me makes it scarier somehow. Because he is a human being. He's not a monster -- or, he might do monstrous acts, but we've got to recognize that this guy's just an ordinary guy at some level.

Q: You seemed almost disappointed in actually encountering him. And it reminded me very much of Hannah Arendt's observations in her book about Adolph Eichmann. Did you have that in mind?

Sacco: No. I've never read that particular book. But, I mean, the phrase "banality of evil" -- just that phrase -- sums it up so well. That's what you see. But it was also about my response to that person. It's a let down, in a way. In some ways, you want to see fangs on him.

Q: It just occurred to me that, in the course of that story, you're probably in more frames than he is. Why did you decide to foreground yourself so much in a story like that?

Sacco: Well, [the story is] about a lot of different things. It's also about journalists. And I'm trying to put a couple journalists in the spotlight for a while. It's at the end that I come to the forefront. Even though I am in every picture, it's sort of in a non-speaking role until the end.

You do what's appropriate for the story. In Palestine it was appropriate for me to be a central character because I was the only thread tying a lot of unconnected episodes together. And in the Gorazde book, there're just stronger characters, and I can stand back. It really depends on what you try to do with the story.

But definitely with comics, if you're telling about your own experiences, you cannot not draw yourself -- You have to draw yourself, because you're trying to draw your experiences. It's very difficult to leave out that symbol of the personal pronoun.

Q: Even aside from the difference between comics and straight prose, how does your style of storytelling compare with the kind of thing you were taught in journalism school?

Sacco: It's quite different. I didn't do [it] in the way we were told to, where you try to act like you're a bug on the wall -- the objective-style journalism that American journalists are so proud of themselves for. In the end, that just seems very phoney to me. Especially when you're talking about very hot issues, like Palestine or Bosnia. I mean, journalists -- all of them have an opinion, there's simply no doubt about it. The important thing, I've found, is to be honest and fair [about] what you're seeing, and to be clear that you have a point of view.

I think maybe that's where I differ from the way a lot of American journalists do it. Because they always pretend that they're not just fair and honest, but also objective. That they have no opinion -- or, if they have an opinion, that it's completely removed from their stories. And I think if you go into any certain situations as an American, as a Western, reporter, you have prejudices going in, whether you know it or not. You certainly do.

Q: I heard you've been traveling to Iraq.

Sacco: I was in Iraq for the Guardian, and I was embedded with marines, a reserve unit from Texas.

I thought it would be good for me, just personally, almost as a journalistic challenge. Okay, let's see: Lets see the military, let's see what they're like, let's see if I have preconceived ideas that will be borne out or not.

What I found though, is that it's a tight unit and you're the outsider, and there are all kinds of secrets. Just like if you're in a refugee camp, there are all kinds of secrets you'll never be privy to. I don't know if you've read The Fixer, but that's the same kind of idea. The average twelve-year-old Sarajevan boy knows more about what happened with the war lords than I will ever know from asking a million different questions. You know, you never get to that level. I mean, you can, actually -- but you have to be a real specialist.

So what struck me about being with the marines is that -- even though I thought that speaking English would be my "in" to really understanding their thoughts -- really what it came to was, there were people I didn't meet just because they didn't really want me to meet them, or they don't want me to know what their roles really were there. So, okay, they want me there, but they don't want me sniffing up the wrong tree.

You realize you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.

Q: Did you see anything in Iraq that surprised you?

Sacco: Not really. Except, I found a lot more thoughtful people than I would have given credit for before I went. I think maybe that surprised me. There were [marines] there who, on or off the record, would really question what they were doing and especially how they were going about doing it. If not the why, more the how, usually -- but still very thoughtful.

I mean, I only saw one unit. I can't talk about other units that might be a lot harder on the Iraqi population, but I felt the people I was with -- and it might have to do with the fact that I was there -- they seemed careful of what they were doing, not ready to fire. I saw three bullets fired the whole time I was there, and that was warning shots.

Q: What are you working on now?

Sacco: I'm working on a long book about Rafah, a refugee camp and town right adjacent to the Egyptian border in the Gaza strip -- and about an incident that took place in 1956. It's historical on some level but it's also about what was going on at the time [of my trip].

You know, what I'm doing has to be historical on some level because the whole situation in Gaza has changed in the last few months. So most of the book is based on what happened two years ago, and then what happened in 1956. I think it's still worth recording.

I'm also trying as much as possible to work on some more Iraq stories, because I think it's important to get them out now.

Q: Any plans for a cameo on The OC?

Sacco: [Laughs.] You know, someone contacted me and said, 'Hey, congratulations on your name-check on The OC.' I'd never even heard of The OC. The TV in my house gets used for movies -- if that.

Kristian Williams has written about comics and cartooning for some unlikely publications, including the Progressive, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Cuny Advocate, and the "Is it a book?" website. He is also the author of American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination (South End Press, 2006), and of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (with a second edition forthcoming, also from South End).

Joe Sacco's PALESTINE, THE FIXER, and SAFE AREA GORAZDE are available at Amazon.

Reading Events-Monday (6/25): Mike Daily Performs his novel ALARM @ Powells 7:30 PM; Tuesday (6/26): FALLING FROM THE SKY authors @ Broadway Books 7PM

2007-06-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

From the press room, sort of...

Four authors from Falling From the Sky will be reading at Broadway Books (1714 NE Broadway St., Portland, Oregon) on June 26th at 7pm!

Featuring readings by Kristopher Young, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Scott Wayne Indiana, Daniel Scott Buck (perhaps), and Santi Elijah Holley, with other authors from the anthology in attendance. This will be a small, cozy reading - we look forward to you joining us!

And tonight (June 25th), Mike Daily will be performing at Powell's City of Books. Click HERE for the Oregonian's Book Review.

And then flip over and read this INTERVIEW with Mike Daily published in last week's Willamette Week.

Hope to see many of you at Powell's this evening.

Anti-War, Anti-Propaganda by Kristian Williams (Part Five of "Cartooning, Politics, and Real-World Violence")

2007-05-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

Anti-War, Anti-Propaganda by Kristian Williams

The history I've recounted in this series might make it seem as though cartoons only serve as advertisements for race hatred, religious intolerance, and national prejudice, and as invitations to violence.

But I've only focused here on one application of the art form. Cartoons have also been used to oppose violence, to mock bigots, to deflate the ambitions of nationalism. Dr. Seuss may have slipped into racist scapegoating and pacifist-bashing, but we should remember that his underlying motive was anti-fascist. [1] He also, during the war, drew cartoons criticizing American bigotry and racial segregation, and later became famous for his political fables promoting tolerance (The Sneetches), environmentalism (The Lorax), and nuclear disarmament (The Butter Battle Book).

Likewise, victims of intolerance used the cartoon medium to speak for themselves: Mine' Okubo's illustrated memoir, Citizen 13660, provided a humanizing look at Japanese-Americans. Okubo used cartoon-style drawings to document her experiences in an internment camp.

Anti-war activists have sometimes used cartoons to inoculate against military propaganda. For example, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors and the Atlanta Peace Alliance gave highschool students Real War Stories -- a comic book featuring actual soldiers' stories about the horrors and humiliations of military life. The book's editor, Joyce Brabner, explains the idea: "It was well suited as a comic because we were competing with all the paper propaganda the US military passes out." The comics worked so well that the Defense Department complained to the superintendent of schools in Atlanta, leading the school district to ban the booklet. "Apparently they thought that it was a threat to national security," Brabner said, "They're just afraid of facts, of the truth, however they're presented." [2] The activists sued, and after a series of embarrassing hearings, the government backed down.

Even superheroes have spoken up for pacificism. In a 2002 issue of Justice League Adventures, Superman and company intervene to stop a new band heroes from invading the desert country of "Qurac" (whose ruler just happens to look exactly like Saddam Hussein). The Flash reprimands the well-meaning rogues: "You know, gang, with your powers, there are a hundred ways to prevent fighting that don't require fighting!" [3]

"Powerful Stuff"

"Ink is powerful stuff," cartoonist Mikhaela Reid remarks. "Comics are usually the first thing people read on a given page, and audiences react more viscerally to drawings than they do to columns of tiny grey text." [4]

These are a few of the reasons that cartoons are well suited for propaganda. Some of their features even seem to propel them in that direction. Cartoons, almost by definition, are prone to exaggeration, to distortion, perhaps to slander.

But that is not all they are, or all they do. Cartoons also simplify, and in so doing they can sometimes bring clarity to a muddled debate. It's true that cartoons can be used to cynically distort facts, dehumanize opponents, ridicule the powerless, and stoke violence. But they can also graphically illustrate injustice and cruelty, unmask hypocrisy, and mock the pretentious or grandiose.

And sometimes they're funny.

Link:

Mikhaela Reid

Notes to Part Five

1 - See Part Four of this series.
2 - Interview with Joyce Brabner (by phone), January 7, 2005.
3 - Nicieza 15.
4 - Interview with Mikhaela Reid (by email), February 17, 2006.

Bibliography for Parts One through Five (in Comics)

Kristian Williams has written about comics and cartooning for some unlikely publications, including the Progressive, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Cuny Advocate, and the "Is it a book?" website. He is also the author of American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination (South End Press, 2006), and of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (with a second edition forthcoming, also from South End).

September Eleventh and Superhero Stories by Kristian Williams (Part Four of "Cartooning, Politics, and Real-World Violence")

2007-05-21T17:49:00.000-07:00

Part Four: September Eleventh and Superhero Stories by Kristian Williams
Among American cartoons, the response to the September 11 attacks displayed many familiar tropes. The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 2002 Edition features about 170 cartoons related to the hijackings and their aftermath -- including ten pictures of Uncle Sam preparing to fight, seven showing an angry eagle (one, sharpening his claws), nine emphasizing the flag, and eleven images of the Statue of Liberty (usually weeping). Fourteen cartoons portray fireman as heroes, five contain references to Pearl Harbor, and six depict the terrorists as rats. Five show the victims of the attacks in heaven, two show the terrorists in hell. Four mock pacifists and other dissenters.

More thoughtful responses are also available. Alternative Comics' 9-11 Emergency Relief, for example, brings together pieces by dozens of comics creators, reflecting on their own experiences on the day of the attacks. Maus creator and Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman takes a similar approach with his ambitious, oversized board book, In the Shadow of No Towers. There, Spiegelman presents 10 one-page compositions that combine the narrative tactics of first-person journalism with the visual tricks of political cartooning to reproduce his feelings of confusion and despair.

The broadest treatment of the September 11 attacks appears in the two-volume 9-11 (co-published by Dark Horse and DC). There, too, we get first-person stories from cartoonists, along with fictionalized tales of ordinary people enduring the crisis, plus the occasional superhero story. Some of the clichés resurface here -- the angry Uncle Sam, weeping Lady Liberty, heroic firefighters and cops. But pleas for peace and tolerance appear alongside calls for revenge; anger and mourning occur simultaneously, along with soul-searching attempts to understand the crisis in some broader context. Even the superhero stories are strangely sober, focusing on the complexity of real-world problems and the vulnerability of real-life heroes. And a great many of the creators, in all three books, take the opportunity to critically consider their own role as entertainers, and the significance (or inadequacy) of the comics medium in times of horror.

Among the most powerful of the post-9/11 cartoons was a short strip by Sin City creator Frank Miller. Three panels show a star, a cross, and the outline of the falling towers. The caption reads, "I'm sick of flags. I'm sick of God. I've seen the power of faith."

Miller now seems to be moving in a somewhat different direction. He told the crowd at a 2006 comics convention that he's working on a graphic novel titled Holy Terror, Batman!, in which (as he puts it) "Batman kicks al Qaeda's ass." Miller describes the comic as "a piece of propaganda" and "a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we're up against." He also sees the work as part of a long-standing tradition in comics, and relates it to the cultural function of superhero stories: "Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That's one of the things they're there for. . . . It just seems silly to chase around the Riddler when you've got Al Qaeda out there." [note 1].

Notes to Part Four:
1 - Hillary Goldstein, "WonderCon '06: Holy Terror, Batman!" February 12, 2006.

Links of Interest:
Columbia Journalism Review

Bibliography for Parts One through Four (in COMICS)

Kristian Williams has written about comics and cartooning for some unlikely publications, including the Progressive, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Cuny Advocate, and the "Is it a book?" website. He is also the author of American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination (South End Press, 2006), and of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (with a second edition forthcoming, also from South End).

Wartime Propaganda by Kristian Williams (Part Three of Cartoons, Politics, and Real-World Violence)

2007-05-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

Propaganda is an indispensable tool for modern governments, especially in times of war. And as cartooning has developed from the early engravings to newspaper panels (and then strips) to contemporary poster art, the state has consistently adapted the medium for its own purposes.

England and France each commissioned prints to encourage support of its own position during the Napoleonic wars. In an effort to portray England's allies as lackeys for hire, Napoleon issued orders: "Have caricatures made: An Englishman, purse in hand, entreating the various Powers to take his money, &c. This is the real direction to give the whole business." [1] On the other side, James Gillray produced propaganda representing the British interests. Syd Hoff reports that Gillray's 1802 series "The Consequences of a Successful French Landing" were "credited with a revival of patriotism that ultimately made the Emperor's aggrandizement impossible." [2]

During the American Civil War President Lincoln called cartoonist Thomas Nast "our best recruiting sergeant." General Grant said Nast had done "as much as any one man" to aid the war effort. [3] Nast's influence is still seen: he invented the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey.

Louis Raemaekers' early cartoons, those dealing with the invasion of Belgium, were realistic drawings, almost journalistic in their treatment. [4] But his later work is both more cartoony, and more propagandistic -- taking aim, for example, at those who opposed American intervention. The caption of "The President's Handicap," reads: "President Wilson, who wishes to take measures to safeguard his country's interests and honour against Hun piracy and intrigue, finds his hands tied and his appeals flouted by German Americans, pacifists, and professors of 'friendly diplomacy.'" Another graphic, from a few months later, is harsher: a stern-looking American solider calls out, "Remember we have plenty of lamp-posts for traitors." Raemaekers went on to design military recruitment posters and ads for war bonds.

At the same time, the German magazine Simplicissimus printed cartoon propaganda against the English and French. And Jean Louis Forain sought to illustrate the resolve of the French people; thousands of copies of his Le Borne were distributed behind the enemy lines.

Not all such propaganda was directly sponsored by any government. The liberal magazine PM, for example, cheerfully took it upon itself to push the US to enter World War II, and then, as its editor explained in a staff memo: "with the declaration of war, PM's first job was done. . . . today we begin a new task. That task is WINNING THE WAR." [5] One of the magazine's chief contributors later became the country's best-loved cartoonist and children's author, Dr. Seuss.

Dr. Seuss's wartime cartooning looks very much like his other work, which only makes it more startling to see it urging war, mocking sincere pacifists, and depicting the Japanese -- and Japanese-Americans -- in grotesque, racist caricature. One particularly distasteful example, titled "Waiting for the Signal from Home" shows a long line of near-identical Asian-Americans, collecting explosives from a roadside vendor. The cartoon illustrates the presumption -- so common at the time -- that Japanese-Americans were dangerous and disloyal. It was this paranoid attitude that forced thousands of innocent people, many of them US citizens, into concentration camps.

Creating Enemies

It is an unfortunate feature of propaganda -- whether or not it comes in cartoon form -- that it lends itself to prejudiced thinking, that it creates an enemy and defines that enemy in stereotyped terms. One's own side -- country, party, race, or religion -- is in every sense contrasted with this enemy and set against him, becoming good in the process, as if by definition.

So the enemy's militarism is brutal and barbaric; but our militarism is noble and heroic. Raemaekers' treatment of German, as opposed to British, nationalism follows this pattern. Compare, for example, two of his cartoons from the First World War: "Hurrah! War on all neutrals at last!" treats the Germans as blood-soaked visigoths, complete with pelts and horned helmets, while "My Son, Go Fight for Your Motherland" shows an angelic Britannia instructing a courageous teenaged soldier on military virtue and national honor.

Likewise, John Dower writes, in the Pacific theater of World War II, "Each [side] raised the banner of liberation, morality, and peace. Whatever their actual deeds may have been, moreover, they condemned atrocities, exploitation, and theories of racial superiority." [note 6] Thus Allied propaganda foregrounded Japanese atrocities in China; Japan portrayed itself as bringing peace and prosperity to the region and focused its own accusations against the British for their exploitation of India.

This sort of hypocrisy is a hallmark of propaganda. Different standards apply to allies than to enemies; identical tactics or policies are judged -- and depicted -- entirely differently. Logic is quite beside the point; hard facts are best avoided.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of propaganda. One presents factual claims, the other relies on moral innuendo. The first sort is always more context-specific; its claims must be to some degree tied to the immediate conflict and the exact circumstances. False or biased news accounts, like those in the Soviet-era Pravda, or the stories the US military plants in Iraqi papers, fall into this category. This type of propaganda may use lies or distortions -- but even these, at least in principle, invoke facts that can be discovered or disputed, verified or debunked. Even when false, the allegations must be thought to correspond to some objective reality; indeed, disinformation relies on its presumed accuracy to achieve its fullest effect.

The second sort of propaganda is more flexible. It does not refer to concrete facts, but points instead to abstract values or ideals; these can be associated with any subject more or less arbitrarily. (Almost all commercial advertising works according to this principle.) Such propaganda merely seeks to invest some person, practice, institution, or cause with certain evaluative associations, either positive or negative. We are good, our enemies are evil; we are courageous, our enemies cowardly; we are civilized, our enemies barbarous -- and so on. These judgments cannot be argued with, they are articles of faith.

This is one reason why, at times, all sides employ the same sort of imagery. During the WWI period, to offer one example, Germany, England, and even the godless Bolsheviks cast themselves as St. George in their military posters. (The effect is sometimes unintentionally hilarious: A Soviet calendar from 1920 shows a bespectacled Trotsky as St. George, slaying a dragon in a top hat.)

The formula here is always the same. Our faction is always St. George, and our enemy is always the dragon. We are godly, they are demonic; it does not matter who "we" or "they" are. Hence it does not matter which war, which enemy, which nation or cause -- St. George always slays the dragon, the devil is always wicked.

To be effective, such symbolism must be familiar to the audience -- another reason the same motifs appear again and again. Enemies, especially terrorists, are drawn as rats or snakes. As America prepares for war -- whether it's World War I or the War on Terror -- an angry Uncle Sam takes off his coat, rolls up his sleeves, and gets ready to fight.

Notes to Part Three
1 - George, 84-5.
2 - Hoff 39.
3 - Lucie-Smith 87.
4 - See Part One of this series.
5 - Minear 13.
6 - Dower 29.

Bibliography for Parts One through Three (in Comics)

Kristian Williams has written about comics and cartooning for some unlikely publications, including the Progressive, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Cuny Advocate, and the "Is it a book?" website. He is also the author of American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination (South End Press, 2006), and of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (with a second edition forthcoming, also from South End).

Political Cartoons, Political Violence by Kristian Williams (Part Two of "Cartoons, Politics, and Real-World Violence")

2007-04-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Politics, by and large, is about violence. When cartoonists become involved in politics, they may also become entangled in violence -- sometimes falling victim to it, sometimes provoking it, and sometimes advocating or justifying it.

The connection here is historically deep and thematically broad. Before the popularity of newspapers, the basic elements and techniques of modern cartoons -- caricature, allegory, captions, even word balloons and sequential juxtaposition -- were being developed by engravers and printers. Their work was published as pamphlets, handbills, and posters. The resemblance between newspaper cartoons, comic strips and comic books on the one hand, and propaganda posters and billboard advertisements on the other, remains in evidence to this day. These techniques, as we shall see, have been employed by opposing sides during wartime, by racists and religious zealots, and by revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries alike.

Revolution and Reaction

Both Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere drew cartoons in favor of American independence. The most famous, one of Franklin's, shows a segmented snake, its pieces labeled with the names of the American colonies. The caption reads "Join or Die" -- which warns the colonies about the dangers of disunity, and might also be read as a threat against Loyalists.

Cartoons both for and against the French Revolution centered on the same device, the guillotine. In 1793 Villeneuve produced a print displaying the severed head of Louis XVI as a warning for "other royal jugglers." A reactionary cartoon from the same period showed "Robespierre guillotining the executioner, having had everyone else in France guillotined."

English prints occasionally advocated the local application of French techniques. One, titled A Cure for National Grievances, showed a pig (representing the masses) preparing to execute an ass (George III), while another pig prods at a broken crown. Nearby signs helpfully identify the street as "Revolution Place," just outside the office of "Dr. Guillotine." The doctor advertises: "The King's Evil cured gratis."

Such cartoons have never been the sole property of either end of the political spectrum -- left or right. During the Cuban revolution, for example, cartoonists like Marco Behemaras and Virgilio Martinez Gainza embedded pro-Castro messages in their comics for the illegal satirical paper Mella. Not all their colleagues shared their agenda: After the revolution, Antonio Prohias fled to the U.S., where he created "Spy vs. Spy" for Mad Magazine. [note 1]

Race and Religion

If the combination of politics and cartooning can be incendiary, the mix only becomes more volatile with the addition of religion. Religious tensions have long produced unflattering images of rival sects or divergent beliefs. Religious caricature often takes the form of literal demonization: Protestants produced engravings of The Papist Devil in the late 15th century; about fifty years later, Catholics imagined The Devil Playing Luther as a Pair of Bagpipes.

These Reformation-era attacks largely borrowed imagery from a well-established anti-semitic tradition. Joshua Trachtenberg offers a small sample from this artistic canon:

"One of the earliest dated sketches of a medieval Jew, from the Forest Roll of Essex (1277), bears the superscription Aaron fil[ius] diaboli, 'Aaron, son of the devil.' The sixteenth-century series of prints entitled 'Juden Badstub' shows the devil assisting the Jews in the functions of the bathhouse, drawing water with them, building up fires, etc. A seventeenth-century print, 'Der Juden Synagog', depicts the devil as a participant in the Jewish ritual. The notorious figure of the Judensau, portraying the sow as the mother feeding her Jewish offspring, one of the commonest caricatures of the Jew in the Middle Ages, occurs also with the devil represented as supervising the operation. Satan's semitic features are often emphasized with grotesque exaggeration (Mephistopheles is usually swarthy, hook-nosed, curly-headed); when he is portrayed with a Jew badge on his cloak, as we find him several times, the allusion is clear enough." [note 2]

During the Reformation, Protestants and Catholics alike made the most of this reliable prejudice. Each sect sought to identify, rhetorically or iconographically, its rivals with the Jews, and therefore (it was thought) with blasphemy and devil-worship. More recently, Muslims have also adopted the tactic of labeling all enemies as Jews. An Iranian caricature of Saddam Hussein, for example, features the Star of David on his beret.

The Nazis, of course, were the great masters of anti-semitic propaganda -- and they had the cartoons to prove it. Beginning in 1923, Der Sturmer published Nazi material for a lower-class, uneducated audience; it specialized in anti-semitic cartoons and pornography. The tabloid's publisher, Julius Streicher, was hanged at Nuremberg for inciting racial hatred. Unfortunately, the tradition did not die with him. Even now, neo-nazi extremists still recycle old stereotypes in cartoons ridiculing Jews and people of color, denying the veracity of the holocaust, and agitating against mixed marriages.

Anti-semitic cartoons also continue to appear in newspapers from the Middle East. (Most infamously, an Iranian paper sponsored a contest, inviting cartoonists to mock or deny the Holocaust. [note 3]) One common convention builds from (and on) the tendency to wholly identify all Jewish people with the government of Israel; it becomes only too easy to represent the entire country in the figure of a single caricatured Jew. Through this substitution, the blame for Israel's policies become attached to the Jews per se, and pre-existing anti-semitism is mobilized in opposition to the Israeli government.

Of course, the Jews are not alone. Nearly every abused minority has fallen victim to unwarranted, insulting caricatures. Most recently, in May 2006 -- just months after the Jyllands-Posten debacle [note 4] -- a state-run newspaper in Iran printed a cartoon that featured a cockroach speaking Azeri, the language of the country's largest ethnic minority. Hundreds marched in Tabriz in protest, breaking the windows of government offices. In Orumieh, rioters went further, setting fire to government buildings and to the offices of the offending paper. At least four died in the unrest. In response, Iranian officials ordered the paper closed, arrested its editor and the cartoonist, and issued an official apology.

In the US, African-Americans are the most consistently maligned group. Sometimes Black caricatures appear as merely condescending stereotypes, or puerile attempts at racist humor. (For examples, see Fredrik Stromberg, Black Images in the Comics: A Visual History, Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2003.) Other times, they are something still worse -- calculated efforts to stir popular hatred and advance the politics of exclusion and inequality. This use of cartooning reaches far back in our history. For example, racist cartoons were used to express -- and, as likely, to stimulate -- Southern fears during Reconstruction, presenting an image of haughty and vicious ex-slaves eager to revenge themselves by dominating their former masters.

These same racist fears were turned against the US by the Axis during World War II. An Italian poster uses racist stereotyping to depict Americans (especially African-Americans) as barbarians. The poster, by Gino Boccasile, forcefully depicts American soldiers as racially inferior brutes seeking to deface classical culture through crass commercialism and, not incidentally, rape Italian women in the process.

The use of cartoons in wartime propaganda will be discussed further in Part Three.

Notes to Part Two

1 - "Spy vs. Spy" is now in the hands of a leftist, Peter Kuper.
2 - Trachtenberg 26.
3 - An Israeli paper responded to the Iranian contest by asking Jews to submit their own anti-semitic cartoons.
4 - For more on the Mohammad caricatures and the controversy they provoked, see Part One of this series.

Links of interest:

Der Sturmer

Iranian Holocaust Denial Cartoons

Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoon Contest

Bibliography for Parts One and Two (in Comics)

All rights reserved by the author.

Kristian Williams has written about comics and cartooning for some unlikely publications, including the Progressive, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Cuny Advocate, and the "Is it a book?" website. He is also the author of American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination (South End Press, 2006), and of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (with a second edition forthcoming, also from South End).

MindBuck Comics: Cartooning, Politics, and Real-World Violence by Kristian Williams

2007-04-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Part One: Cartoons, Seriously

Cartoons can cause a lot of trouble.

In September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed twelve caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, some of which were deliberately insulting. One showed Mohammed with horns, another with a bomb in his turban.

Months later, when the images gained wide circulation, riots erupted throughout the Muslim world. At least 145 people died. Danish embassies were trashed, as were the offices of several other European countries, the US, the EU, and the World Bank. Muslims began a boycott of Danish products. Several Middle Eastern countries withdrew their ambassadors from Denmark, the Danish government advised its citizens to leave Pakistan, and Chechnya briefly expelled all Danish organizations -- including relief agencies.

Meanwhile, Islamic clerics offered a million-dollar bounty on the cartoonists responsible. And Pakistan asked the US to extradite two people who posted the cartoons on their website. The charge is blasphemy; it carries the death penalty.

In the US, the debates surrounding the cartoon riots relied mostly on well-rehearsed platitudes. Some commentators reduced the conflict to one of free speech and censorship; others insisted that it was more an issue of cultural sensitivity and the limits taste and civility place on political humor. More aggressive interpretations presented the cartoon controversy as one front in a over-arching "clash of civilizations" -- usually with the implication that the episode demonstrated some barbaric intolerance inherent in Islam. And a great many people simply threw up their hands, with the feeling that it's just damn silly to get so upset over something as trivial as newspaper cartoons.

One aspect that almost totally escaped public notice, however, is the similarity of these events to other crises from throughout the history of cartooning. This wasn't the first time that a cartoon provoked international outrage, a diplomatic crisis, or violence. In fact, it's almost a tradition.

"Them Damn Pictures!"

The Danish cartoonists are not the first to face a bounty. In 1914, the German government offered 12,000 guilders for the body of Louis Raemaekers because he had drawn cartoons depicting German atrocities in Belgium. Acting under diplomatic pressure, the Dutch government prosecuted Raemaekers for endangering Holland's neutrality. He was acquitted at trial, but for years he continued to receive anonymous threats, his travel was restricted, and his exhibits were censored. The Cologne Gazette warned, "After the war Germany will settle accounts with Holland, and for each calumny, for each cartoon of Raemaekers, she will demand payment with the interest that is her due." [note 1]

In the 1930s, Japan responded to an insulting caricature of the Emperor in a more sophisticated, and ultimately more effective, manner -- using its diplomatic and commercial influence to punish Vanity Fair. As a result, several American companies withdrew their advertising from the cash-strapped magazine and the US government officially denounced the cartoon. Vanity Fair collapsed soon after.

These examples show us something of the power of cartooning. Censorship, after all, is one way of taking cartoons seriously. Rioting is another. If such reactions seem irrational to most Americans, it is in large part because we've grown used to ignoring our cartoonists, or seeing their work as an irrelevant amusement. As Clay Butler, the artist behind Sidewalk Bubblegum, put it, "In America, political cartooning is largely an impotent exercise. . . . It doesn't do anything. . . . The humorists always have greater leeway [for] speaking truth, but at the same time, our truth has negligible effect because people see us as 'funny people'." [note 2]

It hasn't always been so. After Boss Tweed appeared in Harper's Weekly with a money bag where his head belonged, he remarked, "I don't care what they print about me, most of my constituents can't read anyway -- but them damn pictures!" [note 3]

In 1902 Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Pennypacker used legislation to voice his objections to caricature. After Charles Nelan drew the governor as a parrot in the Philadelphia North American, Pennypacker introduced a bill outlawing

"any cartoon or caricature or picture portraying, describing, or representing any person either by distortion, innuendo, or otherwise, in the form or likeness of beast, bird, fish, insect or other inhuman animal, thereby tending to expose such person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule." [note 4]

Several other states followed suit, but the laws were generally ignored.

Dissident cartoonists do not always fare as well as Nelan, or even Raemaekers. The cartoonist Rius (aka Eduardo Del Rio) so irritated the Mexican government that in 1969 the military arrested him and staged a mock execution. During the dirty war of the 1970s, the Argentinean government went even further. Many cartoonists were forced into exile. Others, including the country's most famous comics writer, Hector Oesterheld, were arrested and "disappeared." A government official later explained, "We did away with him because he wrote the most beautiful story about Che ever done." [note 5]

Links of Interest:

Mohammad Caricatures

The Global Cartooning Crisis

Sidewalk Bubblegum

Notes to Part One

1 - Allison, vol. 1, vii-viii.
2 - Clay Butler, interview (by phone). February 17, 2006.
3 - Hoff 77.
4 - Caswell, 7-8.
5 - Pilcher and Brooks, 215.

Bibliography (in Comics)

Kristian Williams has written about comics and cartooning for some unlikely publications, including the Progressive, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Cuny Advocate, and the "Is it a book?" website. He is also the author of American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination (South End Press, 2006), and of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (with a second edition forthcoming, also from South End).

MindBuck Music: Silicon Vultures

2007-04-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

The Silicon Vultures enter the Captain's family. You can pre-order your vinyl by clicking here.

MindBuck Art: Jesse Reno

2007-04-19T02:02:00.000-07:00

Jesse Reno is an artist living in Portland, Oregon. His work is currently displayed at the BLK/MRKT Gallery. Look for his soon to be released Truth Will Measure, a collection of over 100 full-color works by this up-and-coming artist.

SCARECROW

2007-03-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

Click here and read this editorial over at Scarecrow.

Much has changed in the past year, but nothing more so than the spirit of underground literature. In this EDITION of Scarecrow, the time has come. This volume includes the work of Lee Rourke, Andrew Gallix, Matthew Coleman and Tony O'Neill (whom I read with in New York last fall). And, of course, other literary darlings. I especially love that picture of Adelle! Somebody please help me.

POD-dy Mouth: Needles in the Haystack

2007-03-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Today, POD-dy Mouth is closing shop. Known as "Girl," she has sifted through thousands of print-on-demand and self-published titles over the past two years, literally searching for the needles in the haystack.

More than a few writers have gone from obscurity and garnered critical acclaim because of her blog. We do not know who Girl is, only that she is a writer who has taken interest in quality manuscripts that for one reason or another ended up going POD. On the right side of her blog is a list of about 65 needles she pulled from the haystack of self-publishing.

Bill Deasy, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Henry Baum, and N. Frank Daniels. These are fellow writers I would not have heard of had it not been for Girl's hard work.

And more than this, she has brought many of us together. We have had readings in New York, we have formed collectives and publishing houses, magazines and blogs. In short, we have created a literary movement on our own terms. In the soon to be released anthology, FALLING FROM THE SKY (see below), you will be introduced to a wide-range of underground fiction. And you will also find some Needles as well.

Falling from the Sky (published by Another Sky Press)

2007-03-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

Falling from the Sky includes new fiction by Daniel Scott Buck, Tony O'Neill, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Henry Baum, Kate Holden, Carlton Mellick III, Brad Listi, Joseph Suglia, Gina Ranalli, Kristopher Young, and many others.

You can order your copy here!

The O'Grady Experience

2007-03-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

ALARM, a new novel by Mike Daily, will be coming out in June of 2007. Witness his band, O'Grady, by clicking here

Philip Roth wins Pen/Faulkner Award

2007-02-28T19:27:00.000-08:00

Philip Roth's Everyman wins the Pen/Faulkner. Buy the book here

Happy Birthday Michel Houellebecq!!!

2007-02-26T15:22:00.000-08:00

Today is Michel Houellebecq's birthday. He is the author of The Elementary Particles and Platform, as well as others.

MindBuck Film: Marie Antoinette review by Kristy Hogue

2007-02-24T02:48:00.000-08:00

Although Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette recieved fairly bland and/or negative ratings from critics I have to disagree.

For those who know Coppola's work, this movie falls right in line. Some have called the movie slow, boring, too long, and the mix of 18th century France and it's royal customs with the mix of 80's pop hits clashing. However, I am here to quell those complaints.

As for the movie seeming slow or boring, especially in the beginning, I have to go back to Coppola's style in movie-making. This movie is no exception to her quiet, captivating trend of films so far. Instead of character dialogue she allows the setting, body language of the characters, and the amazing cinematography to set the tone and convey the message of the scene. Her movies are less about an intriguing plot that is wound around vibrant characters, but more dull about the certain people (as we are all people, and just the same), and more about what creates the situations they are in. This is certainly not what they are heard to say, but what they DO that defines them. Coppola stresses this point in a beautifully subtle way.

While the movie may seem to be too long for some to sit through, at two hours and three minutes, it documents the beginning of Marie's journey to the end, and for the telling of someone's whole life I would dare to say it is too short. Coppola oscillates between long drawn out scenes of the personal aspects of Marie, and short, poignant glimpses of the outside factors affecting her. We aren't here to watch a history film on France's aristocracy and the French Revolution--the movie is titled Marie Antoinette for a reason.

Personally, I feel that Coppola did an amazing job of seemlessly weaving in the contemporary music with the sounds of the late 1700s. It by far did not distract from the movie, and in fact added a needed mood to many of the scenes--one which could not be brought across with a harpsicord. Again, with the movie centered on a person, not a time in history, this mix also brings in a connectedness that the audience feels with Marie. Coppola presents the main character and her friends as exactly what they are: children. Children operating in an adult world where they can eat all the sweets and drink all the champagne they please while partying until the late morning. They are no different from the teenagers and 20-somethings of today and Coppola wants us to see that.

Overall, I found myself reminiscing on her other films, Lost in Translation, and The Virgin Suicides as the cinematography and, of course, directorial style were very similar and set the same muted yet vibrant tone. I would highly recommend the movie to those who enjoy other works by Sofia Coppola, especially those mentioned above, and who view it for what it is: a juicy narrative of a young woman of royalty in France, and NOT as any representation of all-encompassing history.

My only compaint: that amazingly effortless birth! That had me thinking, "oh, PUH-lease."

Kristy Hogue can be found at http://www.myspace.com/autumn_noir.

Portland Drum and Bass

2007-02-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

Solid Walls of Sound

by Shae Stewart

_________________________

I don’t know about you, but when I think of the Greek Cuisina (you know, the restaurant on the corner of SW 4th and Washington; the one with the giant purple octopus above the door) I think of scantily clad women and oafish men waiting in line to indulge themselves in a night of dancing to Top 40 pop music and hip-hop. Well…I used to think that, anyway. Then I went to Crush.

Every Wednesday night from 10pm until late, the second floor of the Greek Cuisina turns into an underground dance party similar to the parties you might find any given weekend in LA, New York or Seattle. The sound that fuels this dance party? Drum and Bass, baby. Unlike the soft, pudgy sounds of Justin Timberlake or Nelly, or even its more socially palatable electronic cousin House, Drum and Bass is hardcore, percussion and bass driven dance music. Those who enter the Greek on a Wednesday night should expect a solid wall of frenetic sound that will make the soul (as well as your chest cavity) vibrate.

Those who enter the Greek on a Wednesday night should also expect to hear major Drum and Bass DJs, as Crush is not your grandmother’s DnB night. The kids who organize this weekly party (founding members include Noah D, Chris Coda and Ryan Organ) are well connected and host some of the most famous Drum and Bass DJs in the world; Crush has been host to mainstream DJs like Diesel Boy (among others), but it also frequently showcases local up-and-coming DJs. To find out more about Crush as well as other upcoming Drum and Bass events, check out http://www.pdxdnb.com.

MindBuck Film: Inland Empire reviewed by Colette Phair

2007-02-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

“Look at me, and tell me if you’ve known me before.”
Inland Empire reviewed by Colette Phair

6 years ago I saw Mulholland Drive in the theater, and when the credits came up the audience laughed. As if to ask, ‘Could this really be it?’ This time there was laughter too. There was also that sound you make when something hurts to look at, gasps of shock, jumping back in sheer terror, and - I suspect - attempts not to laugh at something only you see the weird humor in.

I was careful to go into Inland Empire not knowing anything of its plot, and I’m going to write this so that when you’re done reading it, you won’t either. But then there’s always the possibility that after you’ve seen the film, you still won’t.

At first I thought this was Lynch’s “Fuck you” movie. I think it’s safe to say Inland Empire is weirder than anything since Eraserhead. It’s shot entirely with low-quality digital video, which gives it the appearance you’re just watching someone’s bizarre home tapes. But thinking about it I realized, all Lynch’s movies are “Fuck you” movies.

Because of the 3-hour length, you have time to forget about the initial plot, until only one character from it (Laura Dern’s) remains. Pieces of it are touched upon again only briefly, in that way that makes you remember that all the abstractions you’ve just gone through weren’t deviations but clues. Yet Lynch also returns to characters and subplots that seem forgotten… Though that might just be the contrast from the way his earlier films abandoned characters you’d expect would be central to the story. There are times he makes you think he’s switching to a new scene but goes right back to where he was. And as always, the last thing you’d ever expect to happen does.

I have to admit to feeling disappointed at first, probably due to the digital look. But it either gets better, you get used to it, or his craft is so skillful you can’t possibly stay fixated on something as superficial as the medium. Following the polished, Hollywood appearance of Mulholland Drive, in ways this is a welcome innovation. Then, even some of the acting seems false at first, but I have to think that even this is set up to draw you further in as it goes.

And then there are times when it’s so real, you get the feeling he’s just taking reality and not bothering to alter it for fiction. But not in the way where you suspect what you’re watching has happened to him, to where it pulls you out of the drama… Only that he has a connection to a reality we don’t know about. Or could it just be that, despite what is inevitably borrowed from personal experience, his technique is so flawless you can’t bother to be pulled out.

Techniques from Twin Peaks are brought back, and themes from Mulholland Drive. If we have to draw comparisons, I’d say this film starts out Mulholland Drive, goes through Twin Peaks, then ends Mulholland again. Despite the still experimental nature of his work, with Lynch I can’t help but feel I’m watching the same movie over and over, a movie remixed and re-released just in case you still don’t get it. And you probably don’t. After only a single viewing, any film of his is bound to remain a mystery.

It could be because people just aren’t used to sitting in a theater for twice the length of a normal movie, but even as a hardcore Lynch fan I found myself wondering if Inland Empire would have suffered so much being cut to a more standard 120 minutes. There’s no predicting when a Lynch film will end, and though it may not be a timely ending, after 3 hours of what-the-fuck-is-going-on, this audience was willing to accept that it could be over.

Colette Phair is the author of Nightmare in Silicon (Chiasmus Press, Fall 2007). Visit her site at http://apocolis.com/.

THE OFFBEAT GENERATION

2007-02-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

The Offbeat Generation & The Brutalists:
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/zadie-smith-isnt-fucking-interesting/