When we were studying the causes of the Second World War at school our attention was drawn to the political cartoons of the era. I remember being impressed by one in particular, a cartoon entitled Rendezvous, which showed Hitler and Stalin meeting over the body of a prostrate Poland. It was the work of David Law, a New Zealander by birth, who was working at the time for The Evening Standard.
It was because of this that I took an interest in the rest of Low’s work. He was a brilliant caricaturist and his depictions of a certain kind of reactionary complacency in the figure of Colonel Blimp are just so amusing even today. I think there are few people now working in this field, in the field of political caricature, who come anywhere near Low’s talent, a talent that gave passing contemporary image a permanent place in history.
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It does just seem this mad election has conjured voices of terror from the 1930s--the significance of which I find perplexity intriguing.
ReplyDeleteIs there one somewhere showing Stalin being greeted in Hell by a delighted Satan, with Uncle Joe reaching to shake with one hand while holding a dagger behind his back? I read a description of it in a fictional story but it may be a real cartoon. I liked the one from the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War showing Hitler and Stalin standing on a stage in ragged overcoats with the curtain finally being pulled closed upon them. I found it very poignant.
ReplyDeleteGood cartoonists are like brilliant writers. The gift of saying something with very little, a sentence or a sketch, is something of a rare commodity these days.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
ReplyDeleteRetarius, I don't know that.
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