“The Standard Oil Octopus”, Daily Graphic, Tues 4th Feb 1879, New York. Vol LXVIII, No.1.

Octopus constructed of pipes and barrels, and capitalist harpies in a wasteland. Very early (1879) octopus political cartoon. “$10,000,000 Profits in 4 Months.”

“Railroad monopolist & stock market manipulator William Vanderbilt is the top right vulture flying overhead. The other two vultures, are brothers William (left) and John ( lower right) Rockefeller, who owned the Standard Oil refinery. ” (SuperITCH)

Source: Super I.T.C.H. May 26 2010 (Accessed: 19th Sept 2010)

Landlordism: a vampiric octopus (Northrop, circa 1910)

This postcard copyright by W B Northrop shows the octopus of “Landlordism” - renting out a property (or absent landlord) -  with its arms enclosing parts of London. In the enclosures are the names of the landlords and their earnings from rent. An interesting aspect to this, is according to the text - shown below - this is a vampiric octopus: “The Land Octopus Sucks the Lifeblood of the People.”¹

LANDLORDISM CAUSES UNEMPLOYMENT It paralyses the BUILDING TRADE: It Pauperises the Peasantry: 12 Landlords “own” (?) London, taking, 20,000,000 a year; 500 Peers “own” (?) an entire one-third of England; 4,000 Landlords “own” (?) an entire half of Enlgand; The Land Octopus Sucks the Lifeblood of the People.²

Footnotes:

1. Northrop, W.B - text from the postcard, presumably written by Northrop. Emphasis in the original.
2. ibid.
3. Further reading: two articles that discuss two different situations of landlordism, the enclosure of the commons, and the consequences:
   • Curtis, L. Perry (2003), Landlord responses to the Irish Land War 1879-87, Eire-Ireland:Journal of Irish Studies, 38:3-4, http://tinyurl.com/chpujt (Accessed: 1st Feb 2009)
   • Tilsen, J. (2003), Ottoman Land Registration Law as a Contributing Factor in the Israeli-Arab Conflict, http://www.beki.org/landlaw.html (Accessed: 1st Feb 2009)

Russian Gas Octopus (2009)

Two cartoons depicting Russia as an octopus over the dispute between the Ukraine and the Russian company, Gazprom. The first shows Putin as the Octopus⁵, and the second shows Gazprom as the octopus with Europe in its grip⁶. The cartoons are in response to the Russian company, Gazprom, cutting off natural gas supplies to the Ukraine. And consequently partially cutting off supply to other parts of Europe.

Gazprom has a monopoly on gas supplies in Russia, and is the largest supply of gas in the world¹. According to CNN Gazprom replaced the Soviet Ministry of the Gas Industry in 1989. The Russian government owns 50 percent of the company (controlling share)². So Gazprom required permission of the the Russian government to cut supplies, which was given by Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin³. Other links between the Gazprom and the Russian government include the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who ‘is a former Gazprom chairman’⁴.

The most relevant contrast for this (thinking out loud for a moment) is the Standard Oil octopus cartoons both for symbolism and the alleged collusion between government and industry.

Footnotes

1. CNN (6th Jan 2009), Gazprom: Russia’s most powerful company, CNN (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/06/gazprom.profile/index.html#cnnSTCText(accessed 10th Jan 2009).
2. ibid
3. BBC News (Jan 5th 2009), Russia to cut Ukraine gas supply, BBC News,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7812368.stm (Accessed 10th Jan 2009)
4. CNN 2009

Images Sources:

1. PISMESTROVIC (2009), Kleine Zeitung (via CartoonArts International / The New York Times Syndicate), Graz, Austria, 08 Jan 2009,http://www.cartoons.nytimages.com/portal/wieck_preview_page_147705(Accessed: 10 Jan 2009)
2. SCHOT (2009), NRC Handelsblad (via CartoonArts International / The New York Times Syndicate), Rotterdam, Netherlands, 07 Jan 2009http://www.cartoons.nytimages.com/portal/wieck_preview_page_147642(Accessed 10th Jan 2009)

Greenspan and the Economic Slowdown (Anderson, 2003)

Alan Greenspan sits in a boat beset by rough seas and the octopus of ‘Economic Slowdown’, and is attempting to fend it off with arrows and harpoons of ‘Rate Cuts’ (Artist: Nick Anderson).

Source: Nick Anderson (2003), Washington Post Writers Group,http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=4626

The Forty T—-s (Rogers, 1888)

Another octopus antitrust cartoon from Harper’s Weekly. Proof that octopus cartoons can be more imaginative than just putting an octopus on a building or map and tattooing it with whomever you want it to represent.

“The Forty T—-s: Baba Jonathon: I don’t like your looks, Mr. Merchant, you had better move on” by W.A. Rogers. Published in Harper’s weekly, Vol 32 No 196 (March 17, 1888). Imaged altered from source:http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g12535 (i.e. cleaned up). Accessed: 4th Jan 2009.

Will It Hurt The Octopus? (Walker, 1904)

Artist: Ryan Walker, SOURCE (image altered from) July 1904: “Will it Hurt the Octopus?”/”Anxious Teddy”, The Comrade, vol. 3, no. 10, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University,http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/photoneg/oneITEM.asp?pid=39002053601226&iid=5360122&srchtype= (Accessed 04 Jan 2009).

Via ZPi