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Monday, May 4, 2015:

COLOR 'EM RED!

Scroll below for a set of documents showing how the FBI and local police affected public interpretations of black activism in the 1960s.

Also some dark and truly offensive examples of police humor:

From the 1960s Pro-Police campaign:
PIGS ARE BEAUTIFUL
Ever seen or heard of this one?

Police sense of humor is complicated. On one hand, it's a VERY difficult job, where you have to interract with the worst elements of society daily, and are exposed to a carnival of terrible things, so humor serves a purpose to generally make things easier and more tolerable. But geeze, some of these jokes are really angry.

Of course, one rule about private jokes might be never manufacture them into objects like buttons and shirts; which brings about this gallery of rare and uncommon items.

"PIGS ARE BEAUTIFUL"

In the late 1960s, the Black Panthers started to become a national organization with chapters in many cities, and the phrase "Pigs" for police became common. How best to combat this ruinous word? Make an ACRONYM OUT OF IT! Enter the PIGS are BEAUTIFUL public relations campaign. I know nothing about this, except for these two existing pins:

The first one is actually kind of cute and charming. The word PIGS has been acronymed out to stand tor Pride, Integrity, Guts and Service. Not sure what H.E.L.P. then stands for, but it's a generally pro-police sentiment, not unlike other police marketing, like the 1960s Your Friend the Policeman comics:

1963 Friend

1968 Friend

Click to read both comics
(click to read an introduction from Comics with Problems #45)

It's the SECOND button, however, where things get very complicated. Instead of a PIG that HELPS, we have a violent image of a pig gleefully sodomizing a trapped Black Panther:

(Sadly, these two pins were just found amongst a large lot collection of other political-themed materials. If anyone knows more about these pins, I'd love to hear about it)

Immediately, this reminded me of a shirt I picked up in 1996 in Chicago. I'm surprised I've never posted an image of it. But during the Democratic National Convention, I visited a police memorabilia store and was very surprised to find this shirt for purchase:

The shirt is one my favorite items, to be honest. It's very real, too. The Chicago Tribune reported on it in 1996

And for our MAIN ITEM:

BLACK PANTHERS COLORING BOOK as discussed in a Fraternal Order of Police newspaper, THE GUARDIAN CALL

Ouch! A knife to the head! and even the kid's
in on the action.
From the Black Panther Coloring Book

Hot dog, what a fun one we have for you here. One of the more widely known pieces of COINTELPRO is the Black Panthers Coloring Book. Here's a few blurbs about it from elsewhere on the Internet:

"This is a horrific example of the tactics used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stifle legitimate dissent and violate the civil rights of political groups that the administration dislikes. Along with the anti-war movement, the Nixon White House targeted the civil rights movement for disruption, using on-campus informants to infiltrate and in many cases to disrupt legal protests and activism.

This coloring book, which was purported to be from the Black Panthers, had actually been rejected by them when it was brought to them by a man later revealed to have intelligence connections. Not to be troubled by the fact that the Panthers found the coloring book revolting, the FBI added even more offensive illustrations, and mass mailed it across America. It so infuriated the white population that they stopped listening to the legitimate grievances of the black people. "
— whatreallyhappened.com

"Disturbing and highly racist photos from a 1969 coloring book distributed to kids via the FBI’s ‘COINTEL’ program were a part of the secretive operation that sought to infiltrate groups like the Black Panthers by spreading such insane propaganda in their name."
— storyleak.com

An interesting transcript from History Matters

Now, as for things YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE, here's a six page newspaper piece on the comic book, from the perspecctive of a very disgusted Delaware Fraternal Order of Police. Some of the text is pricelessly humorless and square, too.

Here's all the pages, click on any one for an enlarged view:

The very likely fact the Delaware police received the coloring book from the FBI itself is almost an absolute certainty. I'm pretty sure the Delaware police were not in on the FBI's joke, however, and this is a fascinating read displaying the coloring book's effective use in tightening tension and fear between Black activists and police as a perceived threat. It was clearly a receptive audience for that perspective.

Lastly, a little more t-shirt humor:

Yeah it was just a "rough ride", man!

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(permanent link to this entry)

Thursday, February 12, 2015:

JOHN WILCOCK COMIC
updated on Boing Boing

Chapter Seven concludes with a three part tribute to John's friends Jan Tice and Stan Russell

Pleased to continue working on the John Wilcock Comic. Scott and I just concluded Chapter Seven, the last three pages appearing on Boing Boing:

My First Orgy
An Incident on Liberty Street
The Day Kennedy was Killed

We'll be back with more in a few months.

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Comics with Problems #67

Meet Gabby, the anti-pedophile puppet

Lastly, it's been a while since Comics with Problems made you specifically uncomfortable. So why not remedy that by meeting Gabby, the puppet behind "Stranger Danger" -- a very creepy coloring book from Marathon Oil.

CLICK TO READ COMICS WITH PROBLEMS #67

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(permanent link to this entry)

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Music, Now available in the U.S.

JOHN WILCOCK: New York Years
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1957 atomic revolution comic book
Lucky find