Number 1652: All politics is loco

Tomorrow is election day. Today is the day many of us, including me, wish tomorrow would be over and we could dispense with the constant politicking, campaign ads, mud-slinging, sh*t-flinging, finger-pointing and general ill will. It will be a relief to wake up Wednesday morning even if my candidates don’t win, if only to have the process over for yet another cycle.

I looked around for a comic about elections and found this funny story from Little Iodine #1 (1950). Iodine was a character invented by cartoonist Jimmy Hatlo, She was “an embodiment of all the brats I knew,” according to the surly Hatlo. The comic book ran until the early sixties. Hatlo’s signature comic panel, “They’ll Do It Every Time,” was very successful, but labor intensive. Hatlo used assistants, who I assume worked on the comic book. Like most successful cartoonists, though, Hatlo’s signature was the only byline.

Finally, to my fellow Americans of voting age...remember to vote. You can’t complain about the winners if you don’t do your part.

You can read a Hogan’s Alley article by Tom Heintjes about Hatlo here. You can see several of Hatlo’s “They’ll Do It Every Time” panels from the Hairy Green Eyeball blog here.

Number 329


No high-hattin' for Hatlo!


While I was growing up Jimmy Hatlo was one of my cartooning heroes. I turned to his single-panel feature first thing every morning, and read his Sunday panels religiously . (The Sunday funnies were the only religion I got or wanted on Sunday.)

I loved the ironic humor, the foibles of people pointed out by Hatlo through his contributors: his readers. Hatlo, who had been a sports cartoonist, had a wonderful ability to connect to his fans, who read his panels and said, "Yeah! I recognize that situation!" Saying that, it must've been havoc around the Hatlo studio, opening thousands of envelopes and reading submissions by the train car load. I wonder if they ever did a cartoon about that?

These panels are from a David McKay Co. 1943 hardcover collection of They'll Do It Every Time panels. Like the greatest cartoonists, Hatlo could draw not only funny faces, but perspective and architecture. His panels are rich with detail, eye candy everywhere. And everything looks right. The office settings he drew aren't Dilbert's, that's for sure.