The Invisible Fist

This is Historic Times has struck again!

The art of combining two not unrelated subjects into a protest metaphor is an old one, but editorial cartoons have been known to get complacent or relaxed. Often, political cartoonists take aim at lame-duck political (non)issues with a heavy-handed eagerness that belies their agenda. Some manage to be valid, serious and (darkly) humorous at the same time, but that kind of balancing act is difficult, and the public may not be comfortable with it – and newspapers are already lacking for subscribers.

I haven't seen an outstanding, explicit political cartoon in a while, and the only place I can see them done well seems to be Terrence Nowicki Jr.'s website. This man's output is consistent and some of his work borders on that level of awesomeness where substance and style are realized in equal amounts. Humor isn't always his first target, but I like the new seriousness as much as the next anonymous blogger.

The cartoon I'm blogging about is a dark one, which tends to happen when art treats the issue of corporatism. From the callous murder of the toy homunculus in the science-fiction chapter of Cloud Atlas (Oh you haven't read it? You should.), to the sanctioned slaughter of replicants in Blade Runner, the corporate scene could easily be mistaken for a large dark cloud raining on the straggling masses – and let's not forget Robocop.

In all seriousness, I do not know if Nowicki was the first to equate philandering corporations with abusive spouses, but his execution is brilliant. What the abusive figure of 'corporations' says is exactly what it says and does in real life. Have corporations abandoned ship? Always. Do they threaten to, even when they already have one foot on the neck of another populace? You bet.

Which reminds me a bit of the recent news stories about investment banker 'brain drain' which might happen if governments refuse to underwrite firms. Firstly, no other country in the world will hire an American investment banker. Sheer protectionism, not to mention the checkered past of Wall St., will keep all but the most desperate countries from – but foreign corporations hire at will, don't they? America's paymaster, at least, would never hire one of those New York gold-bugs.

That's all incidental, however, and I was digressing a little. There was supposed to be a joke about how investment bankers are not brawny enough to be worth a similar cartoon, but I suppose they have already proven themselves to be more psychologically and financially abusive – the visual metaphor escapes me. Then again, I don't have much talent in that department.

If you want to see talent in that department, I should refer you to This is Historic Times, a political cartoon I might have mentioned in the past. It's pretty good, and recently presented a rather impressive and emphatic treatment of corporate America, in which America plays the part of...