A few years ago, I really enjoyed writing a master’s
dissertation on Steve Bell’s ‘If…’ cartoons from the Falklands War.
In addition to the blunt truths he spoke to power, what
struck me then was extent to which he reused carefully-chosen references from
popular and high culture to make his points.
The very first Falklands strip, as well as introducing us to Reg
Kipling, was composed and drawn in the style of jingoistic boy’s war comics
from the fifties and sixties. In a few
brief panels this effectively skewered the rhetoric of the pro-war commentators
of the time.
He's continued to deploy such intertextual references, using
deceptively fine draughtsmanship to evoke other works in his political commentary.
His rumbunctious collection of infeasible animals (penguins
with teeth?) echo the Beano and the Dandy, of course. And equally pleasing is his reuse of more
establishment artworks, as recently when he presented the naked condom Cameron
in full Greensill lobby mode, in a version of Manet’s ‘Le Déjeuner sur
l'Herbe’.
If this truly is the end of ‘If…’, the Guardian will be the
poorer for it, but we should at least thank Monsieur l’Artiste for all of the
rich pleasures he has given us over the years.
And perhaps his most appropriate legacy will be if future
cartoonists look back at Steve’s work, (in my view the great political cartoons
of our time), and re-use John the Monkey, Harry Hardnose, and of course Prince
Philip the Greek Penguin in their own attempts to challenge the next gang of
charlatans that manages to win power, to similarly take the royal piss out of
those who lord it over us.
(With due credit of course).
No comments:
Post a Comment