“I was amazed when I discovered your website because it reminded me of a picture that I found campy—but still evocative—even when I was in high school. It is something that /should/ be shared with the world, and where better than a website devoted to octopodes in politics.”
[VA: …snip…]
[Submitted by: Kevin Deegan-Krause (http://www.pozorblog.com)]
[VA: Source is “Know Your Communist Enemy” p.3 in Robert B. Watts (1977), “Our Freedom Documents”, The Supreme Council, Washington]
Attwod, F.G., “He Gathers Them In: A Pacific Sketch”, in Life September 24, 1885. It shows Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th President of the United States).
Source: Period Paper (15 Aug, 2011), http://www.periodpaper.com
Private collection.
I received a note from David Pope on Twitter, that read “Will plead guilty for this [redacted]. Will plea bargain with this [redacted]”, I will leave it up to you to decide which was guilt, and which redemption.
The first is a response to the proposed mining tax in Australia (and unfortunately gutted - and I say this as someone who works in the mining industry). The second uses images associated with Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility (what a spectacular euphemism).
The first cartoon, even though it uses a familiar trope, does it is a knowledgeable way. It takes the symbology of the octopus/big business and uses it as a continuation to saga, not a repeat. Or, to put it another way, takes advantage of the trope and gives it a novel twist.
Or maybe I’m just besotted with the idea of a planet-sized octopus smoking a cigar.
(Many thanks to David Pope for letting me reproduce these images).
A serving of propaganda and popular culture.
Here, in terse pictorial form, the panorama of Big Business in Modern Crime is presented in all its unvarnished truth. The adage “Crime does not pay” becomes a dubious slogan in the light of the authentic revelations which trace the growth of the crime octopus from petty larceny into America’s most profitable industry.
(via Stripper’s Guide)
“A Horrible Monster”, published in Daily Graphic, July 19th, 1880, New York.
(This has been on Vulgar Army previously; this is a clearer, more detailed from Super I.T.C.H.)
Cartoon criticising ‘the pollution of New York’s air by the Standard Oil plant at Hunters Point, New York. The caption reads “A Horrible Monster, whose tentacles spread poverty, disease, death, and which is the primal cause of nuisances at Hunters Point”.
- “Beautiful Villas on The East River Rendered Uninhabitable” (showing buildings by river with “To Let” signs)
- “Interrupted Pleasures” (Family & brass band holding cloths to nose & mouth)
- “Offensive to the Last” (“Hunters Point Ladies Cabin”, smoke stacks in background)
- “Disease and Death” (Mother grieving over dead child)
- “A Whiff From Hunters Point” (Diners holding handkerchiefs to mouths)
Original Image source: Kovarik, W. ”Industrial Revolution: 1810 – 1890″ Environmental History Timeline
On October 28, 1891, the Weekly Missoulian caricaturized Hammond as the “Missoula Octopus, that is undertaking to reach its slimy arms over the county and strangle the life out of it.” The following year, Hammond purchased the newspaper.
For more information: http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/10a9.4/gordon.html
Once again, the “octo” part of octopus is optional.
Arms labelled: South Missoula Land Co, Delinquent Taxes, The Missoulian, Camas Farmers, Race Track, Timber Den?, Missoula Water Works!, Town of C?dale, Ramsdell Bros, Mortgage Records, Florence Hotel, Bitter Root Farmers, Missoula Hotel, Steel R?, Higgins Estate, First National Bank, McCormack Estate, Town of Bonner, Front Street, Town of Cor wallis, Town of Victor, Fort Missoula, Canon Ditch, Missoula Real Estate Assn, Church
via www.historycooperative.org
