Dick Hafer

Dick Hafer (not Dick Haver to one's disappointment) was a cartoonist who wrote and illustrated a plethora of batshit insane comics on right wing politics, anti-abortion, homophobia, anti-gun control, anti-communism, and Christian fundamentalism.The Comics Commando. Archived from Inc. Magazine, 1 June 1982.John Gizzi, Politics 2003 Week of September 1. Archived from humanevents.com, 29 August 2003.Christian Comics Pioneers. Archived from christiancomicsinternational.org, 25 August 2022. Hafer ran Freedomlight Publications, which published right wing fundamentalist comics, tracts, and other screeds. He also authored comics on model railroad collectingDick Hafer, This Is Not the Honeymoon I Anticipated, Kalmbach Pub Co, 1 October 1996, Dick Hafer, Sometimes You Gotta Compromise: A Light-Hearted Look at Model Railroading...and Model Railroaders, Greenberg Pub, 1 June 1995, and lightweight "family friendly" humor.Dick Hafer, Church Chuckles, New Leaf Publishing Group, 1 December 1995, Dick Hafer, Sunday Snickers, New Leaf Press, 1 March 2004, Dick Hafer, So You Want a Dog: Questionable Answers to Your Questions About Doggie Ownership. Doral Publishing, 1 June 2004, 
==Right wing politics==
Hafer illustrated an offensive comic book attacking the Democratic candidate in the 1988 United States presidential election. The hit piece, claiming that Dukakis supported witchcraft and bestiality, was proudly promoted at a Republican rally prior to the start of the 1988 Republican National Convention by none other than conservative blowhard Jerry Falwell. The comic book also shamelessly attacked Dukakis's wife Kitty.Dick Hafer, Magical Mike : the real story of the Mike Dukakis. Anthony Kane Associates, 1988.
Hafer also drew another comic book hit piece on Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy during the senator's 1982 re-election campaign.Dick Hafer, Every Family Has One: or....Even a Black Sheep Can Make It...Especially If He's a Rich Black Sheep!, Citizen's Organized to Replace Kennedy, 1982.
In 1987, further cementing his credentials in right wing windbaggery, Hafer and Dick Crowley released Is Politics a Dirty Word?, a so-called "handbook for Christian patriots".Dale Crowley, Jr. and Dick Hafer, Is Politics a Dirty Word? or a Sacred Responsibility? : a handbook for Christian patriots, 1492-1988. Christian Political Education Publishers, 1987. Michigan State University Libraries, Special Collections Division, Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection.
Hafer illustrated other political cartoons for the Republican Party, including one for Dick Armey's first congressional candidacy in Texas in 1984. He parodied the Canadian health care system in a comic called Medical Monster of Capitol Hill.
Hafer's Shafted: Bill and Hillary's Excellent Adventure is a hit piece lamenting the 1993 election of Bill Clinton.Christina M. Knopf, Politics in the Gutters: American Politicians and Elections in Comic Book Media. University Press of Mississippi, 2021. .
==Anti-gun control==
In 1983, Hafer illustrated a tract entitled "Stop the Gun Collectors" for the lobbying group Gun Owners of America that was subsequently dumped onto members of the United States Congress.New comic book is pro-gun. Suffolk News-Herald, Volume 61, Number 130, 1 June 1983. 
Hafer illustrated a number of screeds for (JPFO), an extreme right wing organization that believes gun control is a code word for "disarming innocent people".About JPFO: Fierce Defender of American Liberty. Archived from jpfo.org, 2 June 2017. These pamphlets use "Gran'pa Jack", a stereotypical old codger, claiming that gun control in the United States is a racist slippery slope towards tyranny and destruction that has resulted in the death of over 170 million unarmed civilians in the twentieth century."Gran'pa Jack" Educational Booklets, archived from jpfo.org, 2 June 2017.
==Anti-abortion==
In 1989, Hafer self-published I Know That We're a Throw-Away Society-- But This Is Ridiculous!, an anti-abortion screed with a cover rendering of a baby in a trash can. In the book, Hafer regurgitates all of the typical right wing anti-abortion talking points from that era.Dick Hafer, I Know That We're a Throw-Away Society-- But This Is Ridiculous!, Freedomlight Pr, 28 January 1989, Dick Hafer, I Know That We're a Throw-Away Society-- But This Is Ridiculous! Another excerpt from ep.tc.
==Fundie stuff==
Through Hafer's Freedomlight Publications, he condemned the Ouija board as a "toy from hell" that "has triggered fierce demonic attacks" and that women have been "repeatedly and brutally raped" after using the toy. Hafer goes on to claim that demonic attacks are common and "they are usually backed by strong medical evidence."Kerr Cuhulain, Spiritual Counterfeits. Archived from witchvox.com, 23 September 2002, citing Hafer's Freedomlight Report, Vol 1, No 3, Oct/Nov 1990. Hafer's "Freedomlight Report" newsletter, co-produced with his son Carleton, was cited as a poorly sourced screedfest dealing with dealing with anti-Wiccan, anti-Pagan, and anti-Satanism issues.Modern Neo-paganism & The Occult, A Guide to Alternative Religions And Their Opponents, Chapter 18, The Modern Witch-hunters. Archived from slvrsplsh.freeservers.com, 27 August 2022.
==Homophobia==
Hafer's most notorious work is Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Death-Style.Dick Hafer, Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Death-Style, Paradigm Co, 1 January 1986, "Dick Hafer was an asshole" Celebrating the self-titled Comics Commando. Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Death-Style part one, ep.tc."Dick Hafer was an asshole" Part Two! Final Asshole Climax! Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Death-Style part two, ep.tc. Published in 1986, when Reagan was president and the AIDS crisis was unfolding, Hafer's book tops out at over two hundred pages and provides an astonishing pile of hate, misinformation, bigotry, and even more hate. The book starts out early by dropping phrases such as "golden showers" and "fisting" and describing homosexuality as a "perverted sex addiction" backed up by quote mined statistics. He pokes fun at the Stonewall Inn riots in 1969 using crude stereotypes, and compares the Gay Liberation Front to "Algerian and Viet Cong terrorists." To Hafer, the homosexual lifestyle is "incomplete and sordid" and "totally absorbed by illicit sex!"
The book warns readers that it contains "graphic details of the types of perverted acts homosexuals perform", then goes on to describe AIDS from a bigoted perspective. And, of course, it's the fault of those dang Democrats:
As if this couldn't get any worse, Hafer dedicates an entire chapter linking homosexuality to child molestation, describing NAMBLA, and citing even more quote mined statistics. For good measure, Hafer pulls a lot of numbers out of his ass and links homosexuals to violent crime.
== Selected works ==
=== Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) "Gran'pa Jack" tracts ===
*"Gun Control" Kills Kids!
*Can You Get a Fair Trial in America?
*It's Common Sense (to use our Bill of Rights)
*"Gun Control" is Racist!
*The United Nations is Killing Your Freedoms!
*Will "Gun Control" Make You Safer?
*Do Gun Prohibitionists Have a Mental Problem?
*Is America Becoming a Police State?
=== Freedomlight Publications ===
*America, Wake Up!
*Breaking the Stranglehold - The Liberation of Grenada
*The Militia in 20th Century America
*Combat Handbook for Parents with Children In Public Schools
*Who Is This Jesus, Anyway?
*Where Do You Get Off, Calling Me A Sinner?
*Of Course I'm A Christian...Aren't I?
*AIDS Is Looking For You
*Microscopic Monster
==See also==
* Jack Chick
==External links==
* Boolean Union's riff of "Homosexuality: Legitimate Alternate Deathstyle" 
==References==
Category:Artists
Category:Cartoons and comics
Category:Christians
Category:Fundamentalists
Category:Gun nuts
Category:Homophobes