While arranging periodicals for reconsumption (love watching them disappear from a college hallway), the September 2016 cover of Funny Times, a monthly humor anthology with a decidedly political bent, paused my rhythmic sorting.

On its cover Clay Bennett captured the hope and can-do spirit of blue panters — and the despair and can-not-do spirit of the red panters.

Screenshot-2018-1-11 Clay Bennett by Clay Bennett for Aug 1, 2016 GoComics com

http://www.gocomics.com/claybennett/2016/08/01

And I note the homogeneity of the red panters.

And I love that they’re picking apples: the biblical tree of knowledge.

In an age starved for images, Nast used caricatures to expose political corruption; in an age saturated with images Bennett used a cartoon to expose . . . sanity?

 

 

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