THE ST. LOUIS REFUGEE SHIP BLUES

On June 24, the Washington Post published Art Spiegelman’s comic strip editorial depicting editorial cartoonists’ reaction in 1939 to the U.S. government’s refusal to let 900 European Jews fleeing Nazi German disembark from the ship that brought them to America’s shores; the ship was forced to return to Europe, where the passengers presumably walked down the gangplank to meet the fate Hitler had in store for them. June 24 was the 70^th anniversary of the Jews getting off the ship, the St. Louis, back in Europe. Spiegelman's cartoon can be seen full-size here.

The cartoon incorporates several editorial cartoons of the day, some that were innocuous to the point of ignorance, a couple, including one by Herblock, that were a little more vigorous in their criticism of the U.S. government. In closing the page, Spiegelman depicts himself as the Maus and says: “Political cartoons now mostly offer bland (but not always bland) topical ‘laffs’ and editorial cartoonists are dying off even faster than the newspapers that hire them” — a statement that has it both ways: it’s critical of editoonists for being bland but also draws attention to their plight, with which Spiegelman seems sympathetic. Oddly, as he says this, the Maus is holding Barry Blitt’s infamous The New Yorker cover of the Obamas committing a fist bump. Is this Spiegelman’s example of a hard-hitting political cartoon?  — a cartoonish drawing that was so ambiguous in its meaning that it prompted an uproar in all directions?

Snide observers of Spiegelman July 24 effort marveled that the comic strip aroused no comment, almost as if no one had seen it. Does this mean, wondered one blithe spirit, that Spiegelman has lost clout and is no longer The Cartoonist Everyone Pays Attention To? The last panel in the strip is another of Spiegelman’s multi-layered visuals, so laden with meaning that its impact is nearly lost: the Maus is wearing one of those spherical black bombs on his head (like the Muhammad in the Danish cartoon) and saying, “Sigh — it’s really hard to say the right thing.” Is the Maus, then, Muhammad-like, a prophet? Does Spiegelman expect to be assaulted, like the Danes were, for expressing his political opinions? Does he hope to be attacked? Or is this Spiegelman’s symbol of The Cartoonist, an irreverent iconoclastic ink-slinger perpetually hoping to do the “right thing” but always, inevitably, criticized for it? Or does the Maus in the picture signify that pictures are simply too ambiguous to make statements alone without words? Visit the picture, see for yourself, and then decide.