Image Analysis-Part 2

 My chosen question is-

“Discuss the role that Illustration can play during periods of political and/or social upheaval."

I have chosen to base my essay on the 'Thatcher Era' and the way Illustration was affected by and responded to the political climate.

 The first image is an illustration by Gerald Scarfe that shows Margaret Thatcher depicted as a shark. Gerald Scarfe is one of the most well known political cartoonist of his generation and took great pleasure in transforming Thatcher into a variety of distorted almost grotesque images. Thatcher divided the country and polarized opinion. She had a strong aggressive personality that made her stand out form most other politicians of the time. Scarfe often used these aggressive character traits in his cartoons by portraying Thatcher as an axe, shark, pair of scissors and a Pterodactyl. Although Thatcher was admired by a lot of people she was despised by many. Scarfe has said in interviews that villains were the characters people found most engaging: "It's a bit like in theatre, where the villains are the best ones - they're the ones everyone wants to see. No one cares about bland heroes." As an editorial cartoonist for The Sunday Times Scarfe's illustrations were seen by the public on a regular basis and may have had an impact on the public's perception of Thatcher rather than just acting as a representation of already held opinions. Scarfe's cartoons became easily recognisable as Thatcher no matter what he transformed her into. He used set characteristics, primarily the over sized angular nose as a visual motif. Scarfe acknowledges the ability of cartoonists to create images that become an almost universal symbol for the person they are trying to portray and in some cases even alter common perception of that person's appearance. In a interview with the BBC Scarfe said,

 "I always started with her nose, this flourish of the pen which brought about the beak-like nose.

In actual fact, her nose wasn't that big but the thing with being a cartoonist is that you can convince the public bit by bit that what you're seeing is that creature." If a cartoonist can alter the public's perception of physical attributes it is not out of the question that they could alter perception about their personality or actions as well.

Tintin - Breaking Free is a parody of the original work by Herge and was written under the pseudonym J. Daniels. In this rework of the popular cartoon some of the main characters remain but the narrative has been drastically changed. The story centers around the main character (Tintin) and his development from disaffected youth to revolutionary leader. This cartoon was first released in 1988 two years before the end of Thatcher's time in office and tackled issues synonymous with Thatcher's rule. The story depicts escalating tension between trade union workers and the government leading to strikes and demonstrations. The strikes become more widespread and the government responds with increasing repression. This story mirrors the conflict between trade unions and the government during Thatchers reign. Each page of the book is copied directly from Herge's original cartoons and has been altered to fit the new narrative. The longstanding popularity of the Tintin series meant that meant that J.Daniels had a well recognized and trusted platform to introduce his ideas to the public. The use of a usually lighthearted and innocent cartoon may have made the ideas in the book more easily trusted or at the very least will have caught the eye of people familiar with Herge's original work. The book caused a huge stir in the press with several papers condemning it for being naive and brutish or simply calling it a copy of Herge's work (The Times,1990; The Guardian,1994). I think calling this book a copy is an oversimplification and misrepresents the nature of the book but it does raise issues with the copyright of an artist's work. It is in interesting rework and the use of a well known existing publication is a tactic that has been used many times before and since but not often quite as boldly as in this case. I think that as a response to the political climate and the governing powers at the time this means of communicating serious issues and making them available and appealing to the general public is a subtle and effective one that demonstrates one of many ways illustration can be applied to periods of social and political upheaval.