The enthronement of the Pachamama idol in St. Peter's basilica transpired on October 7th, 2019. Shortly after the enthronement, Alexander Tschugguel removed the multiple Pachamama idols from the basilica and discarded them in The Tiber river. Pope Francis heard of this and initiated an effort to retrieve the idols.
A little while later, a comic appeared on social media. It depicted Pope Francis and another priest fishing Pachamama idols out of the Tiber river. The Devil is watching them. The Devil states: “And I will make them fishers of Pachamamas.” The words “Gloria.tv.” sat on the bottom right hand side of the comic. No indication of a title or author.
I asked myself: Who is this cartoonist? Where might I find more of his work? Why does the comic bear no title?
I did a little digging. From my sources, I found out a little bit of information. The artist wishes to remain anonymous. The artist makes other art, which is not related to the comics. I agreed to keep the rest secret. And the secret stuff wasn't helpful.
I make Catholic comics. It excites me to find other Catholic cartoonists. It's a shame I can't connect with this guy, but, at least, I can appreciate his work.
This article is about an anonymous cartoonist. He creates a comic that, for all that I know, has no title. Despite all of this, he is an amazing satirical cartoonist. I refer to the cartoonist as “he” because “he” is gender neutral in the classical understanding of that term. Correct me if I am wrong, though.
In this article, I refer to this comic as “the Gloria TV comic.” It's less confusing that way.
One challenge in reviewing the Gloria TV comic is there's no place to see a large sampling of it. Gloria.tv is where you can find the English language versions of the comics. But there's no specific location on the site to view the comics, as far as I know.
The comics appear on Gloria.tv on a particular date. One must scroll through all of the other posts to find the older comics. No print collection of the comics exists, to my knowledge.
Taking that into account, know, dear reader, that I base my review of the Gloria TV comic on my memory and Internet searches. Perhaps the cartoonist of the Gloria TV comic made some lousy or objectionable comics as part of the series. If so, I have not seen any of those comics.
Some may view these comics as uncharitable to The Holy Father. I disagree. When the Emperor is not wearing clothes, it's an act of charity to tell him he's naked. I view these comics through that lens. But if you disagree, please tell me in the comments section of this article. I'm glad to be instructed.
Just to note: there's some debate as to whether single panel gag cartoons, such as this, qualify as comics. Discussions about the medium aside, culturally, it is hard to find anyone who refers to them as illustration. Based on that fact, I just treat “the Gloria TV comic” as a comic in this article.
Now for the review!
It's no secret that The Church is in crisis mode. With the state of The Church as it is, there are a few approaches for an artist to take.
Ignoring the crisis is an option. This approach is quite feasible. There's so much in Catholic history to use as inspiration. I dare say, most Catholic cartoonists take this approach.
Another option is to pretend that every direction in which our hierarchy leads us is the right direction. It is correct, even if it contradicts 2000 years of Tradition and the teachings of Christ. This seems to be the position taken by Francis the comic strip (see my review of that comic here).
A third option is to address the problems head-on in a humorous fashion. The Gloria TV comic takes this approach.
The writing for the Gloria TV comic is satirical. This means it is “a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn” (Merrium Webster Dictionary). It pokes fun at current events and news stories regarding the Pope and the clergy. Most of the time, the comic identifies a contradiction in what Pope Francis says or does.
The Gloria TV comic echoes the same kind of commentary featured on many Traditional Catholic news sites and podcasts. The great thing about the Gloria TV comic, though, is that it boils the entire story and commentary into one image and a few words. The result: what, normally, takes minutes to hours to grasp, becomes comprehensible in a few seconds. That's the genius of this political cartoon.
It's not hard to imagine pulling off a genius political cartoon, once. What is significant, though, is that the Gloria TV comic presents this level of genius over and over again.
The art is tight, but not stiff, somehow. Perhaps that's the advantage to a single panel comic. Motion does not need to be implied between panels, because there is only one panel. Thus, art that appears stiff, if there are multiple panels, does not come off as stiff, because there's only one panel.
The art is reminiscent of the art of Dave Berg. For those who don't know, Dave Berg worked for Mad magazine, writing and drawing a comic called "The Lighter Side of…” from 1961-2002.
The line art of the Gloria TV comic appears to be of digital origin. It seems too consistent to be drawn by hand. I may be wrong.
I am certain that the colorization of the Gloria TV comic is of digital origin. There's a large use of gradients in the colorization process. It works well. Too often, in comic art, gradients work only to make the colorization appear mechanical. Not in this comic. This artist figured out a way to make the gradients harmonious.
What strikes me the most about this comic, on the whole, is that it provides a humorous counterpoint. We live in a world where we have to deal with numerous scandals, heretical statements and outright persecution from our hierarchy. Comics is a strong medium. It's a relief to see a strong response to spiritual assault, using a strong medium.
These comics, definitely, deserve a print compilation. Perhaps with accompanying articles for historical reference. Once this crisis in The Church is behind us, these comics will serve as evidence. Evidence that a cartoonist took notice. Evidence that a cartoonist responded with satire to the crisis ravaging The Mystical Body of Christ.
I recommend this comic if you are a fan of great satire. It's almost like the old MAD magazine, only from a Traditional Catholic perspective. I wonder, sometimes, if The Gloria TV comic is a response to Francis, the comic strip. Unfortunately, as it stands, that's impossible know. Unless I'm missing something.
You can go to Gloria.tv to see this comic. It's also widely shared on Traditional Catholic and other social media sites.
God bless the creator of these comics.
Maybe,
one day, we'll find out his name.
-George Tautkus
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