So our terrible Vice President Elect drew cartoons — terrible cartoons — back when he was in law school in the 80s. Esquire has posted a bunch of them, and holy crap they are bad. The art is sloppy and derivative and awful. The jokes, such as they are, are worse.
And seriously, it should be illegal to draw cartoon eyes like this:
Esquire discovered and posted the cartoons back in August. I can’t believe they didn’t get more attention at the time — I only just learned of them. Even setting aside his other failings, these cartoons really should disqualify Pence from holding any public office.
I mean, sure, I also drew some pretty dumb and possibly not-that-funny comics when I was in college. But trust me, they weren’t this annoying.
H/T — Scildfreja Unnýðnes, for bringing the Esquire piece to my attention.
Don’t we usually mock the MRA memes and comics for there artistic quality as well as what there actually saying anyway? I don’t see this as that different other then the fact that the MRA’s haven’t usually moved on to other much more endeavours afterwords. He’s the vice president of a nation, I’m sure he can handle his old art being mocked. (Not that he deserves the consideration.)
@Imaginary Petal:
I don’t get it. Are you saying that the jokes are the art?
@Snowberry
They’re certainly part of the art.
EDIT: But if you want to separate the jokes from the drawings, why do you think it’s okay to mock the jokes but not the drawings? What’s the logic there?
Eh, thoses comics prove one thing : he already was a shitty individuals when he wrote them.
I agree people can evolve past their teenager self. I don’t think Pence have.
Right? Have a little perspective here!
Upon reading Jsun’s concern trolling or whatever that was, my first reaction was
http://24.media.tumblr.com/59524a39558c9a256ed46761a994e5de/tumblr_n46ptqWvx81ruvimvo1_250.gif
I’m not overly concerned about Mike “I’m a Living Pile of Bigoted Crap” Pence’s feelings :D. I take issue with insults for odious people that reinforce structural inequality (eg transmisogynistic insults for Anne Coulter) but bad cartoonists are not oppressed on that basis. Also, if you’re going to have a cartoon, it’s reasonable for others to critique it on the grounds of quality.
@Viscaria
^This is what I was thinking as well. Any other cartoon, we expect people to praise or criticize or mock based on its quality. But cartoons made by murderous fascists shall never be criticized, because bigoted manbabies need to be treated with kid gloves at all times, apparently.
I hope Mike Pence held a funeral for his aborted comics career.
For the record, I found the one about medical students practicing surgery in the law school library mildly amusing.
If we’d had a law school attached to my medical school, we’d have definitely done that.
Probably why the law school was at the other end of the state 😉
The rest of them: huh?
As to if it’s appropriate to mock Pence’s old cartoons: why not? They’re a reflection of how Pence thought when he was a law student. Not a child or a teenager (although one could be forgiven for thinking so given the quality of the artwork), but a flippin law student. There is every reason to think that he should have known better.
I, for one, am grateful that Mike Pence went into politics and spared the world another “Mallard Fillmore”.
I’ll admit that I found the one about the student who wants the teachers to belittle and verbally abuse him mildly amusing, but mostly because as the article points out its not that different from his current relationship with Trump.
I think it’s okay to mock the art when it muddles the message, is an incoherent mess, or the over-all composition (colors, placement, etc.) makes it a horrific eyesore. None of those apply. This is just the ordinary badness of an unpolished artist, and I don’t feel very comfortable mocking that.
Now if there’s nothing technically really wrong with the art aside from maybe the drawing quality (example: happy merchant) then it’s probably okay to mock the art’s implied message rather than the art itself. …I know, that might be too fine or subtle a distinction, but that’s where I draw the line. And in this case, the art doesn’t even have an implied message. Unless the message is supposed to be that law students look like badly-drawn cartoons, which I seriously doubt.
It’s just incredibly bland and pointless. Just like Pence in general.
Honestly I found this rather disappointing. It’s a low blow, sure, but aimed at someone like Pence I’m willing to assume some low blows are called for. But mocking his college newspaper art really doesn’t serve any purpose. When you have a platform as visible as this blog, descending to this kind of pettiness is just giving ammunition to those who would discredit your message.
I know Pence has said (and done) plenty that urgently needs to be criticized. Can we focus on that, please?
A few articles that look promising:
Kris Kobach accidentally leaked Homeland Security plans during a photo op
After months of preaching the importance of privacy and security, Trump team already leaking transition plans
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/21/kris-kobach-accidentally-leaked-homeland-security-plans-during-a-photo-op/
FEC goes after Donald Trump for more than 1,000 violations of campaign finance laws
The Federal Election Commission says Trump accepted $1.3 million in contributions that were over the legal limit
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/21/fec-goes-after-donald-trump-for-more-than-1000-violations-of-campaign-finance-laws/
Donald Trump is very popular right now: Nearly half of Americans like him
Before entering office, the president-elect is at a 46 percent approval rating — the lowest in recent history
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/21/donald-trump-is-the-most-popular-hes-ever-been-nearly-half-of-americans-like-him/
D. D. Webb: This blog generally mocks its subjects I don’t really see this as being too different? WHTM will of course make many more artcles on Pence in the years to come but this has always been a blog about mocking misogyny not engaging it in a civil debate. I don’t really see how this could be used against the blog anymore then any other joke the blog has made would discredit it.
@D. D. Webb
Well… alright. The blog will still be here tomorrow. Maybe there will be a new entry that’s more to your taste.
@D.D. Webb
We have, and we will again in the future. What’s so hard to understand?
This sounds positively brilliant and something I’d totally read.
The thing about Pence that disturbs me is the way standing next to Trump makes Pence appear to be a decent human being. I know it’s an optical illusion. ‘Not as bad as Trump’ is a low bar, but still too high for him.
Okay, the guy saying “No” is traced from another old comic and it’s driving me up the wall that I can’t place which one. Argh.
(Also, apparently WordPress eats any posts that blockquote an image. That makes about as much sense as these cartoons.)
We mock misogyny.
Pence is a misogynist.
The end.
@PeeVee
It was basically like this:
The Man just lost an arm
ran while laughing brave and bold
tripped and fell apart
Cadence.
http://img00.deviantart.net/1a3f/i/2012/111/4/7/cadence_is_singing_with_fluttershy_by_sawyermoonkitty-d4x3ysi.jpg
IP,
Zombie limb loss meets Japanese poetry.
I like.