The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-08
The Innocent Comic Strip Is Not So
Innocent in Its Anti-Red Propaganda
Webster's PORTRAYAL
of a Communist
Organizer
BY JACOB BURCK

THE first lesson in drawing the
capitalist world gives the artist
when he first starts out 10 live by
the sweat Of his brush. Is to teach
him what sells. The head Of a big
newspaper feature syndicate once
informed me with one Of those "for
your own good" airs. after I startled
him by refusing TO do a drawing,
that the newspaper syndicate game
is a business, like any other bust
ness. and that the idea was to learn
to please the man who buys your
stuff not yourself. Expanding with
solicitude, he continued to describe
in detail for my special benefit how
the business functions. That
syndicate cannot afford TO offend
any of its customers-the editors
of the papers which use its feat
ures. These editors in turn must
consider the feelings of their Gus
tomers = the advertisers In their
papers: the banks, manufacturers,
and big merchants.
=. So you see. young man we
are all part of a big machine"
When I told him that I didn't
like the machine and hoped to see
it wrecked some day. he blew up
and waved me out with an exas-
persted gesture.
THE comic strip cartoon is
l newspaper syndicate's biggest
staple. These funnies coin millions
Of dollars for the machine" and
allow the favorite artists to live In
fantastic luxury. The bankers.
manufacturers and big merchants
IN the end control the nature OF
the product. Since they are the
ones whose sensibilities the artist is
warned not to offend. they can
either throttle the humorous brain
child or let 1t live and prosper &C
cording to their wishes. They in
reality form that mysterious animal
called the PUBLIC which the edi-
tors would have the readers believe
are themselves, and the final Judges
Of what they publish.
How often does the artist hear an
editor say, mo, don't think thatll
go. The public won't take to it,"
or There is no public for that
stuff" 1t would be extremely bad
taste to assert that the public is
made uD Of the big advertisers and
politically interested parties, and
that Mr.. Reader Public" has no
comeback. He can take it or leave
it. No, the almighty public is made
up of you, and you, and you, whose
average intelligence the editor of
the New York Evening Journal es-
Inmates between that of the 6 and
IA year old. That is the mental
level at which Mr. william Ran
dolph Hearst is straining to keep
the readers of his papers "for
people who think the better to
fool them, my dear.
ONE Of the most effective, most
:" subtle and painless mental poi
sons is the capitalist comic cartoon.
It's effect is similar to the laughing
gas used in war That Is in this
case the mentality dies with grin.
Rube Goldberg, the Boob McNutt"
artist, writing on the funnies in the
Saturday Evening Post some years
ago gave a list Of donts the comic
strip artist is to observe to make
his work acceptable to the syndi-
cate boss. The list is SO extensive
that what is allowed the funny
artist is practically the real es-
sence, the pure poison. In these
articles Goldberg reveals a CEN
sorship over the comics which is
more stringent and autocratic than
that welded by our famous movie
car Will Hayes. All for very OBJ
vious reasons. The comics reach
everybody of every age-even the
practically illiterate. Whole fam
lilies read and follow them. This
fact gives the impression that the
comic belongs to the masses. To
heighten this impression, the Rit-
zies look upon the comic page as
something belonging to the common
people, though they themselves en-
Joy reading it, for nothing obiec-
tionable or perturbing would ever
be found In a capitalist comic car
toon to offend their class interests.
Life in the funnies is pictured
as a capitalist paradise with every