Cartoons
May 19, 2003 10:58 AM   Subscribe

Political Cartoons from US Presidential Elections 1860-84. Related interest :- American Political Prints 1766-1876; the World of Thomas Nast; British General Election Cartoons 1959-97; Madam & Eve, a popular cartoon about the new South Africa; The Censored Cartoons Page, 'a guide to the cuts and edits which have been rendered to the classic cartoons of Warner Brothers, MGM, Paramount, and other studios when broadcast on television ... ' ; Iranian Cartoons; the London Cartoon Gallery.
posted by plep (8 comments total)
 
You could spend a couple of hours at each of these sites. I think these cartoons show that political discourse in the 19th century was every bit as mean and nasty as it is today.
posted by Mekon at 11:04 AM on May 19, 2003


This is good stuff, plep. I'll second Mekon's observation that there's an amazing abundance of stuff here - maybe other people are still wading through all of it...
posted by soyjoy at 12:33 PM on May 19, 2003


wow, plep - what a collection. I'm fascinated by the Censored Cartoons Page, especially. It seems that there is lots of censoring of certain types of violence, ethnic stereotyping, suicide, and dangerous acts (swallowing gasoline, fer example), but I have to wonder about this one:

"After Bugs and the penguin are captured by the tribe of South American natives, deleted was the shot of a native running into the circle of chanters to warn his fellow savages about the coming of "bwana" Humphrey Bogart."

censored for ethnic insensitivity? Or gratuitously violent geographic confusion?
posted by taz at 12:46 PM on May 19, 2003


Excellent!

Thanks Plep.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 1:38 PM on May 19, 2003


Marxist Satirical Cartoons ;Dr. Seuss Went to War - his political cartoons ; The Water Margin (Chinese literary classic) rendered in cartoon form.
posted by plep at 1:55 PM on May 19, 2003


I did recently attend a screening of racially-offensive vintage Warner Brothers cartoons. And while I deplore sanitization of history -- you should simply show them or not show them, but not bowdlerize them --- the remarkable thing is that you could make a case for censoring them on the grounds of being incredibly unfunny. I mean that not in the sense of someone incapable of finding racial humor funny: I can find anything funny if it's actually funny. I mean unfunny in the sense of really not being funny. It's as if the writers used racial caricatures as a substitute for humor rather than a vehicle for it. The cartoons uniformly sucked, and the reason the audience wasn't laughing is not because they were offended, it's because we were baffled by the extraordinary absence of the wit that usually sparkles through classic WB cartoons.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:30 PM on May 19, 2003


These really are wonderful. Thanks as always, plep!
posted by hama7 at 8:48 PM on May 19, 2003


Some more stuff

I own this classic from Vanity Fair
posted by clavdivs at 6:02 AM on May 20, 2003


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