Historically, I am inconsistent with my consumption of political cartoons. That being said, I read every Remnant cartoon that I find.
Let me explain…
Let's go back in time. The year is 1992. As a young comics fan, I searched out political cartoons. I read whatever appeared in the local newspaper. I fancied myself a more sophisticated reader. After all, I was reading Mad Magazine.
Poorly catechized, and, generally, ignorant of politics, I wanted to find a publication that collected political cartoons. There were plenty of collections of syndicated newspaper comic strips, why not a collection of political cartoons?
At a local store called “Suburban News,” I discovered what I desired. I discovered a copy of Funny Times. Funny Times was, and still is, a publication that publishes political cartoons and other comic strips. The other comics are sometimes more interesting than the political cartoons. For instance, Funny Times is where I first read the work of Linda Barry.
Anyway, I enjoyed reading The Funny Times, at the time. I didn't buy any subsequent issues, though. I'm not sure if that's because Suburban News stopped stocking them, or if I wanted to spend my money on something else. I still liked political cartoons. But, as the years went by, and I reverted to Catholicism, political cartoons lost their appeal. With good reason.
For the longest time, the left dominated political cartooning. Eventually, I didn't agree with the left on multiple issues. It's hard to find humor in comics that mock your beliefs. That was one reason I stopped reading political cartoons. There was also something else.
As I matured, and became more serious about comics, my opinion of political cartoons changed. I adopted the view that great art must be timeless. Political cartoons are, often, timely and do not age well. Because of this, I thought that political cartoons were not timeless and, as such, were not worth my time.
As the years went by, though, my opinion softened. I realized that, even if something is rooted in a time, it has the potential to become a historical document. And, as such, it ends up timeless, as long there are scholars of history. I also realized that one can't always tell what humor will age well.
Around the same time, I became convinced of The Traditional Catholic position on the crisis in The Church. Because of that, I began reading the old copies of The Remnant Newspaper and Catholic Family News that my wife brought home. While contemplating what the change in my life might have on my taste in comics, I came upon The Remnant Cartoon in The Remnant Newspaper.
I’m not entirely sure which Remnant cartoon I saw first. I think it was the cartoon that featured an image of a church and a bishop. The front lawn of the church has snow melting on it. Through the patches of melted snow, one sees pieces of dog feces exposed. A bishop with a happy face symbol for a face is looking out at the mess. The caption reads “New springtime.”
The Remnant cartoon primarily appears in The Remnant Newspaper. The Remnant Newspaper is “America's oldest Traditional Catholic publication.” The Remnant Newspaper profiles the beliefs common to most Traditional Catholics. The term “Traditional Catholic,” as most Traditional Catholics assert, is just a convenient title. Traditional Catholics believe what The Church has always believed and taught. What they reject are the novel teachings of the past 60 years, which are not in line with the Church teachings of the past. In reality, Traditional Catholics just see themselves as “Catholic Catholics.” But, that's a discussion for another time.
The artist for The Remnant Cartoon is anonymous. I'm not entirely sure why this is. But I have a lot of theories!
Whenever I think of anonymous artists, I always think of what I learned in art history classes about Medieval painters. For the longest time, Medieval painters remained anonymous. They viewed art as an expression of a community of people. Based on this principle, one person could not take credit for a work of art, by himself. This idea might apply to the Remnant Cartoon.
The cartoonist appears to be a seasoned political cartoonist. Perhaps this is why the artist The Remnant cartoon is anonymous. Oftentimes, an illustrator or cartoonist employed by a newspaper will do freelance work under a pen name. This is because some work contracts do not allow for freelance activity.
The illustration style of The Remnant Cartoon’s shifts a little from one cartoon to another. This makes me wonder if there is more than one person operating under The Remnant Cartoon, or if the artist is just drawing in different styles. If there is more than one artist working under the umbrella of the name Remnant Cartoon, the anonymity of the artist makes sense. Since no one cartoonist deserves credit, they all work under the umbrella title of “Remnant Cartoon.”
Ok, enough anonymity theories. On to the comic itself.
The content of The Remnant Cartoon follows the line of Traditionalist thought. It's not as blunt as the Gloria TV comic, but it's not too soft, either. It operates in a type of middle ground. It does this by alternating between hard hitting and milder themes. So, for instance, one month we'll see Catholics for Biden sacrificing children to Moloch. The next month we'll see a caricature of George Weigel.
The art of the Remnant cartoon is the type of art that is typical for political cartoons. As far as I can tell, the art of The Remnant Cartoon consists of pen and ink linework, executed by hand. Some minor ink washes make up the occasional grey tone. The captions, also, appear to be lettered by hand.
The colorization, when it exists, is digital. The colorization is minimal. Thus, it avoids the overpowering colorization effect found in most modern American comics.
I highly recommend The Remnant Cartoon. A few samples are available on the Remnant website here. Like the Gloria.tv cartoon, I think that The Remnant Cartoon deserves to be collected into a book length edition. I suggest including an article next to each cartoon, to give the cartoon context. Or, better yet, publish both The Remnant Cartoon and the Gloria TV comic in one edition.
Entitle it: Anonymous Catholic cartoons of the 2000s!
Authored by: Anonymous.
-George Tautkus
Comments
Post a Comment