How I create a cartoon

"Herr Dumbo" the Nazi Lemming

Earlier in the year this beautiful caricature of Trump by Barry Blitt appeared on the cover of the “New Yorker”. Taunted by its magnificence I wanted to go in a different direction with the same viewpoint.

In this instance I wanted to create an image that captured four related elements: Fascism, Christian Nationalism, the American Republican Party and Trump, the cult leader, into one iconographic image.

I began with my favorite animal to draw, the elephant. There’s so much one can do with the form. The white trunks can be klansman hoods. The ears can be bat wings to suggest “batshit crazy” radicalism. The trunk can be a cannon, a pitching arm, a flamethrower, a probe or a firehose.

After much doodling I came upon the vision of the traditional Republican elephant goose stepping like a Nazi. Making the trunk of the elephant a Nazi arm raised in a Sieg Heil salute begged to be drawn.

I tried variations with the party leader riding astride the elephant like a circus performer.

Or better. I could place the party leader’s head on the party icon’s body.I would next toy with integrating the Christian cross into the image.

I would next toy with integrating the Christian cross into the image.

Cartoonists have used crucifixion imagery since Roman times. Since childhood I’ve been fascinated by the grotesque horror of crucifixes, omnipresent icons enshrining the brutally sadistic torment of a martyred pacificist.

Below is the “Alexamenos graffito”, a 2nd century artwork showing a man worshiping a crucified ass which is the earliest known image of the crucifixion of Jesus.

In our modern era the Los Angeles Times cartoonist Paul Conrad used crucifixion as an allegory to describe Richard Nixon’s claim of persecution from crimes he committed.

I have used the cross often in cartoons because it is a recognizable provocative metaphor.

In the cartoon above I make clear my disgust with those American policymakers who choose to cause suffering rather than end it.

In the 30s the Nazis in Germany combined mythology with ideology, creating a rank stew of native folklore, religous anti-Semitism and authoritarian fascism.

Today the “Make America Great” movement combines its anti-governance nihilist ideology with Christian mythology, with Trump frequently comparing himself to the persecuted Christ. Drawing him carrying a cross upon his shoulders to his Golgotha, to his martyrdom was a no-brainer. And off a cliff. A common trope. Below is a cartoon from 1940, eighty plus years ago depicting a blind man leading his disciples off a cliff.

Just as the Germans believe they were an oppressed, persecuted master race, destined to make Germany great again by cleansing the nation of ethnic impurities. And vermin. And blood poison. And Donald Trump has promised to do the same. Using the same language.

With multiple sketches behind me I began to get a feel for the dynamic design of the image, the movement and the elements I wanted to accentuate, the “Sieg Heil” hand on the end of the extended trunk and the confident goosestep out over oblivion, mirroring the obedient choreography of the Germany army of the damned, the damned fools and bullies who doomed their people to self-immolation and their homeland to annihilation.

All I needed to suggest Herr Trump was the orange face, the gold hair and the red MAGA hat. The saluting trunk doesn’t even need the Nazi armband to suggest the fascist salute we all recognize. Dragging a cross conveys the idea of a fascist dragging Christianity along for the ride over the cliff.