Irreverent Political Cartoons

Dr. Seuss, the acclaimed children's book illustrator, also had a career as a political illustrator. His hay-day was early on in World War II and spanned the gamut of war, politics, and American life.

I stumbled on them by accident, looking for something all together different, but was impressed at their satire and wit. This was back in a day when "political correctness" be damned.

I find it admirable that he tackled the "Jim Crow" laws, still rampant then too.

Maybe this is a testament to the power of illustrations, that they can incite people to war, but I would suggest that there needs to be a will before there is a way.

But like comedy, do these cartoons just speak an unsaid truth that collectively we all thought anyways? Is that fair to say? I'm not tryingg to draw any parallels to the Cartoons being rioted about today, but these seem pretty racy to me. It's not a bomb in a turbin, but a message all the same. In many of these instances, it's about American war efforts and the coming Nazi threat.

They make for an interesting examination of W.W.II cartoons.






Cartoons | Seuss | war