Through a Lens: Cartoons and caricatures in the PHS archives
A researcher discovers an early art form that's still current
Who among us is not familiar with cartoons?
Whether on the television screen on Saturday morning or found nestled between the sports and film sections of the newspaper, the visual art of the cartoon has been persistent and popular within our culture since the Middle Ages, though the medium has developed and changed over time.
Cartoons are drawings that are typically humorous or satirical or present a figure in an unrealistic, caricatured style. Cartoons can be found in the form of films or animation, comic strips and books, and even in fine art. Cartoonists can also be found in many forms, including that of a minister. Dr. W. Goddard Sherman is the Methodist pastor whose pen makes you laugh — his artwork and name “appears in The New Yorker Magazine almost as often as he appears in his pulpit,” says the caption. In this image from the Religious News Service collection, Sherman is shown “doing his ‘thing’ — cartooning — as he also thinks out his next sermon.”
Sherman’s cartoons are not all religious in theme, though many poke easy fun at modern Christian life. In one, a man sits in his barber’s chair and smilingly says, “Anoint me with oil.” In another, a wife tells her husband to set the alarm clock an hour earlier than usual, explaining that it’s because she wants “to continue this argument before breakfast!” While Sherman’s illustrations mirrored everyday life at home and work, other artists decided to comment on other realms — like the military experience, for example.
This cartoon is yet another created by an artist who doubled as a religious leader. The Rev. Roger W. Palmquist imagines Martin Luther and John Calvin as military buddies. “Religious differences may be noted, but overcome by the eccentricities of military life, comments ‘Private Luther’ to his buddy ‘Calvin’.” This artwork was published in the bimonthly newsletter of the Lutheran Council in the USA’s Division of Service to Military Personnel, “In Step.” Palmquist said of his caricature, “Private Luther is more polished and less of a nuisance than other khaki-clad cartoon creations like Beetle Bailey or Sad Sack.”
But when attempting to portray that other religious character, the antagonist of Scripture, cartoonists like Palmquist do not aim for their creations to be “polished” or “less of a nuisance.” Caricatures that portray Satan can be found as far back as the Middle Ages, and the imagery of the devil that most of us are familiar with can be considered a comic in itself. The pointed ears and spiked tail, the dragon-like qualities of this demonic presence, and the persistence of Satan being portrayed as a red devil with a malicious grin — this is an iconography that stretches far into the past.
For almost two centuries, Dunstan — the Archbishop of Canterbury from the year 959 until his death on May 19, 988 — was the most popular saint in England. His fame has much to do with the myriad stories told of his bravery while facing, and defeating, the Devil. Following his ordination into monkhood in 934 — he was ordained by his uncle Althelm, who was serving as the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time — St. Dustan returned to Glastonbury, where he built himself a small cell in which to reside (it was only 5 feet long by 2 ½ feet wide). The legend at the forefront of St. Dunstan’s lore begins here, at his cell, where it is said that the Devil tempted him — but Dunstan seized Satan by the nose with his blacksmith tongs. An old folk rhyme offers us the context for this illustration of the beloved saint sparring with Satan: "St. Dunstan, as the story goes / Once pull’d the devil by the nose / With red-hot tongs, which made him roar / That he was heard three miles or more." The Religious News Service reprinted this comic illustration in August 1972, a time when films like “Enter the Devil” and “Necromancy” were being made by the dozens.
The 1975 International Cartoonists’ Exhibition, installed and on display in Bordighera, Italy, was all about the man in red. The Religious News Service press release covering the event featured the headline “THE DEVIL TEMPTS THE CARTOONIST.” The theme of that year’s exhibition was the realm of the mystic, specifically “The Devil, Witches, Magic and Exorcism.” Founded in 1972, the coalition was formed by three cartoonists: Carlo Chendi (1933–2021), Luciano Bottaro (1931–2006) and Giorgio Rebuffi (1928–2014). They hoped to show folks how a comic page was created, offering a glimpse at the process of cartooning as an art. The first two instances of the exhibition did not require artists to stick to a particular theme, though the 1974 exposition did. That year’s theme was “women in comics,” spotlighting both female characters and heroes as well as authors and artists.
The Vatican City’s weekly publication reported on the 1975 exhibit, applauding the attitude “that it was time that the devil and exorcism were taken a little less seriously,” the press release explains. Apparently, the winner of the 1974 exposition’s top prize, Italian Catholic humorist Guido Clericetti (1939–), had refused this year’s call for art, opting out of the contest “because he found it [the theme] too disturbing, an attitude the Vatican magazine said it could understand.” Regardless of this omission, the cartoon competition received plentiful submissions that wedded devilish imagery with satirical commentary on the political and social climates of the time.
There are plentiful comics and cartoons to be found in the archives of the Presbyterian Historical Society — these are just a few highlights pulled from the Religious News Service collection. The topics of the artwork may vary, as can be seen in this curation, but the goal of each is the same: to elicit a smile or pull a laugh from the unsuspecting reader. This Halloween, don’t let devilish imagery undo you! Think instead on this verse from Luther’s well-loved Reformation hymn: “And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us!”
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