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...

2010 Retrospective, pt..2 : Cartoons

I admit that I no longer watch cartoons as happily as when I was 10 and the Simpsons were on TV after school and were all I really needed to make the day worthwhile. Nowadays the Simpsons are... well it's like Marge says in the Movie, "Actually it's [Homer's wildness] aged me horribly". Now, of course, I'm probably paraphrasing and definitely quoting out of context; the show hasn't really aged that much. Banksy recently did the intro to an episode, so you know it's hip as can be, but the humor of the show has aged.

Nobody knows when this happened. Drawn Together had that scene where Homer can be seen sleeping under a bridge. It's not worth noting that Drawn Together is part of a newer 'wilder' generation of comics which judge society in a different way, and Drawn Together is past its own best-before date anyway. The Simpsons are now suffering from a chronic case of ADHD, and no episode really focuses on anything anymore. There are no awesome tricks from Bart (like the episode where he lines up the bullhorns in the police department and blows up all the windows in Springfield) and the story arc usually rests heavily on a gimmick or celebrity. Matt Groening was replaced by a robot, and now pens those rabbit comics again in peace. Is it just me, or is he the George Lucas of animation?

I don't want to be brutal, but Family Guy has had the trajectory of a second-rate Evel Knievel on a bike over a cliff. It began above the quotidian and then fell right into it and now plummets in free-fall. People still quote Family Guy spinelessly, but have there really been any significant events since Stewie killed his mother in that one episode? After the show came back from being canceled, the creators decided to make it a bit prettier and called it a day, thinking their list of acceptable jokes would last through the third season.

South Park is still a sort of a thing and hasn't suffered from the same type of creative sloth as the Simpsons, though some people say it's lost whatever charm it had. I'm not a hundred percent sure about this, but I think part of the fan base just grew up and decided that acting like teenagers acting like children isn't really a healthy thing for an adult to do. You can only be Cartman-style offensive for about a year (if you're not over 21) or a month (if you are) without permanently damaging your reputation.

This very long, selective overview of the modern world of animation brings me to a show that is actually new, and actually funny, and if you can believe it, airs on the Comedy Network. Critics have said all kinds of blind things about Ugly Americans, probably because the show isn't paying people to gush about it. Until now.

Ugly Americans is funny because the main character lives with a zombie, dates a demon, and works with a wizard. It even sounds good when I write it down. You can understand that in a cartoon world like that, the potential for ridiculous situations loosely based on 'real-life' scenarios is almost infinite. Racism = vampires, sexual angst = tree sex, paternal angst = demon baby, koala = cute but doomed, PMS = demon PMS, and so on.

I've actually laughed while watching this show. I've been impressed by the faux-subtlety of certain of its metaphors, its sometimes purely visual humor, the fact that a world with floating brains, bird-men, crawling hands and zombies would annoy me if it was handled poorly. The gore, people, the pure joy of gore in a cartoon is something you must experience. I'm of the old school where if a thing purports to be comedic and makes me laugh I consider it a success, and Ugly Americans is the only show I've seen in 2010 that has achieved this kind of ... this kind of... this level of raw humor and quality.