A fairly standard anti-catholic cartoon. It is titled: “The Papal Octopus - The Pope-Antichrist”, by HE Fowler, and was published in 1913 in an anti-catholic screed.

The arms are titled: ‘ignorance’ (‘dupe’), ‘superstition’, ‘subversion’, ‘bigotry’ (‘public school’), ‘evil’, ‘tyranny’ (‘infalibility’ [sic]), ‘greed’ (‘public money’), ‘corruption’ (document labelled ‘civil laws’).

The text beneath the cartoon reads:

Romanism is a Monster, with arms of Stanic power and strength, reaching to the very ends of the earth, the arm of superstition crushing the American child, that of subversion crushing the American Flag, that of bigotry crushing the American Public School, that of ignorance crushing the credulous dupe, that of corruption crushing the law of the land, that of greed grasping public moneys, that of tranny destroying freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, all over the world -per totam orbem tervarum.

Image source: Jeremiah J. Crowley (1913), ‘The Pope: Chief of White Slavers High Priest of Intrigue’ pg. 430

Scientology (Time, 1991)

January 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment · Edit This

Time magazine on May 6th 1991 (artist Linda Louise Freeman?) depicted the Scientology religion as a hybrid octopus-volcano. The title, “Scientology: The cult of greed”, had the blurb “How the growing dianetics empire squeezes millions from believers worldwide”. Presumably, Scientology is the octopus giving the squeeze. However, I am not sure how the erupting volcano fits in, but it certainly novel.

1991, Time 137:18,http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19910506,00.html (accessed 10th Jan 2009)