Saturday, December 18, 2010

Retro Harkrader / Editorial Cartoon Detail

Harkrader's early editorial cartoon, "A Far Out Look At Ourselves". The symbolic language from top-left to bottom right is as follows. A space capsule circling the moon, space trash in the form of a can of Tang floating in space, the eye of God shedding a tear, a comet en-route to the earth, an iconic atomic symbol as a planet, the black sun, a bulldozer gouging the environment of North America, a satellite communicating with a polluted city scape and spy in the Canadian mountain peaks, an power sub-station feeding the electrical grid around the world, an up periscope in the North Atlantic, a UFO hovering above the Pacific, a spy observing the launch of a space rocket in Asia, a spy observing underground nuclear missiles silo in South America, an atomic bomb and oil platforms in Europe and Russia, aerial bombing in the South Pacific, a large screw exploring the center of the earth's core, more space trash, a sputnik, and more environmental damage in the Anartica...gasp...gasp. Title and signed by the artist, 'Chico'. (circa 1974.)
An appropriate poem by Judi Stout reads as follows: spastic, plastic, systemic confusion; energized, supervised, calculated illusion; erected, inspected, rejected protrusion; institute, prostitute, instant prosecution; near the beginning, close to ending.....judi stout. Do you remember that one Judi?  

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