1697 07-04 Queen of Hell USAAF B-17: Precision-bombing over Wilhelmshaven 1943-01-271698 07-04 Queen of Hell USAAF B-29: Over Tokyo 1945-03-10 (Operating Meetinghouse)1699 07-04 Blood Avenger RAF Avro Lancaster: Underlit by Hamburg firestorm, 11:59 p.m. 1943-07-27 (Operation Gamorrah)1700 07-04 Blood Avenger RAF Avro Lancaster: Kill marks in searchlight over Nuremburg 1945-01-02 before flak damage1701 07-04 Blood Avenger RAF Avro Lancaster: Repaired repainted departing for Dresden 1945-02-14
I think this series are largely plausible although 1699-1701 contain darker and more deadly-serious elements than those generally present in Allied nose art, which tended to express more hopefulness and playfulness, and tended toward the secular. The series also diverges from history in that most historic nose-art photos were taken on the runway, not in the air; whereas here the ratio is flipped because of its sense of immediacy, especially with 1699. Any online search for “world war two aircraft nose art” should produce a vast universe of historical examples. Subject-matter-wise, attractive women and violence were among the most common themes in nose art. Nose art was more common on bombers than fighters, and perhaps most common on US and UK aircraft; but fighters, Axis, and USSR air forces also occasionally included it. By contrast, the use across combatant air forces and aircraft types of “kill marks” (especially by fighters), “mission marks” (bombers), and “victory marks” (a more general term), was widespread.
In Europe, American bombing units usually focused on precision bombing of targets with identifiable relevance to the war effort. In Japan they began as a propaganda effort (the Mitchell raid), then when bombing began in earnest, on precision bombing at first, which yielded disappointing results, turning to mass incendiary raids later on. Whether the difference between the carpet-firebombing in Japan and the precision bombing in Germany was a result of military requirements (postwar studies concluded firebombing in Japan was militarily effective as intended because Japanese war production was decentralized, including by workers in their own homes), US racism, or the fact they had UK counterparts in Europe, is a matter of debate.
RAF bombers were mainly active in Europe. The RAF quickly concluded precision bombing was ineffective, adopting an Air Bombing Directive on 14 February, 1942 deciding candidly “To focus attacks on the morale of the enemy civil population and in particular the industrial workers. In the case of Berlin harassing attacks to maintain fear of raids and to impose [Air Raid Precaution] measures.” Axis propaganda seems to make it clear the strategy encouraged rather than discouraged resistance, just as the German attacks during the blitz had done.
I hoped to capture in these images the darkness and evil of Channah; “Queen of Hell” seemed almost unavoidable and not far off historical examples. “Avenger of Blood” (Hebrew: גֹּאֵל הַדָּם, go’el ha-dam) appears in several Bible passages, including in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. The Avenger of Blood, usually the closest male relative of a person who has been killed, has the duty of searching for and killing the murderer in turn, in accordance with the principle of lex talionis (the law of retribution).
1697 07-04 Queen of Hell USAAF B-17: Precision-bombing over Wilhelmshaven 1943-01-27—2025-07-13. Channah; old private photo. The date referenced was the first B-17 bombing mission with American crews of the war. This image seemed too close to a B-17 to put it convincingly over Japan, but I liked the image.
1698 07-04 Queen of Hell USAAF B-29: Over Tokyo 1945-03-10 (Operating Meetinghouse)— 2025-07-13. Channah; old private photo. The date referenced was the first mass incendiary “area bombing” raid against Tokyo, and one of the deadliest. The resulting devastation and civilian loss of life have been compared to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
1699 07-04 Blood Avenger RAF Avro Lancaster: Underlit by Hamburg firestorm, 11:59 p.m. 1943-07-27 (Operation Gamorrah)— 2025-07-13; Channah; old private photo. Choosing to name one of the most-relentless and deadly incendiary raids of the war after a Biblical holocaust, smacks of an operation more focused on bloody revenge than on military efficacy. The Old Testament nature and origin of the Blood Avenger, and its association with Judaism, seemed like a perfect complement to the British bombing strategy, especially in respect to Nazi Germany, which was neck-deep in the capital-H Holocaust by mid-1943. The picture of the evil Channah grinning down, underlit by the glowing light of mass murder, chilled me to the bone the instant it popped up on the AI.
1700 07-04 Blood Avenger RAF Avro Lancaster: Kill marks in searchlight over Nuremburg 1945-01-02 before flak damage—2025-07-13; n/a; old private photo. I initially viewed this image as a failed request for nose art, but I liked the overall composition and it occurred to me although the kill marks are less interesting visually, they have a profound psychological dimension, more so even than the nose art. I therefore decided to include it. The raid on Nuremburg was also a big one, and had the added significance of being directed against a spiritual seat of the Nazi party.
1701 07-04 Blood Avenger RAF Avro Lancaster: Repaired repainted departing for Dresden 1945-02-14—2025-07-13; Channah; old private photo. For the Blood Avenger images, I blended the typical Channah prompts with terms alluding to the Biblical lady in white and something akin to justice; and in terms evocative of the Biblical story of Lot. As mentioned, 1699 absolutely gave me chills; I liked this one a lot, too, although it raises more questions than it answers about her nature (singular or dual? Human or monster? Female or androgenous? Sane or mad?)
1702 07-04 Nurses are Heroes, Nurses are always needed1703 07-04 Batonnoir Sisters USO Camp Shows, Foxhole Circuit, Manila Philippines 1945-02-21 gig poster1718 07-04 For God and Country1725 07-04 London Life 1942 calendar (REGULAR EDITION)1726 07-04 London Life 1942 calendar (SPECIAL EDITION)
The images here are generally closely aligned with the general goals of the original project described in Subsection A, but become more creative and a bit speculative because they are not inspired by specific historical works. Instead, they are images of a type that were made or might have been made during the Second World War, and aren’t critical or subversive of the original subject matter or the party who made it, whether for good (the Allied images) or bad (the Axis image).
1702 07-04 Nurses are Heroes, Nurses are always needed—2025-07-09. Chastity, Hellinore, Penance; recruiting poster; compare https://www.pinterest.com/pin/376472850079087870/. I liked this as a way to use Penny and Chas in a broader and more favorable role than spies or wannabe men, and combine them with Hellinore, who in this incarnation would be a prominent person in British Society and/or a press sensation as a successful minister supporting the war effort with her sermons.
1703 07-04 Batonnoir Sisters USO Camp Shows, Foxhole Circuit, Manila Philippines 1945-02-21 gig poster—2025-07-10. Penance & Chastity; gig poster. I did not find any gig or other U.S.O. event announcement flyers or posters per se online; but it seems reasonable they likely would have had some. There were magazine ads and posters advertising the locations of U.S.O. clubs inside the United States, there were photos of specific U.S.O. events, and there were U.S.O. fundraising posters, which I considered when styling this image. Although the U.S.O. later adopted a more-or-less standard logo, there was no evidence of that in WW2; the initials would be displayed in different fonts, different colors, different positions, with different images, etc. across different images. But there were examples very similar to the U.S.O. initials here. This advertises a show in a part of Manila after the US had taken it back, but while the battle for the city and surrounds continued to rage on nearby. This is consistent with the accounts of U.S.O. shows very close to the front lines and the fact a number of U.S.O. entertainers were killed during the war while involved in entertaining the troops.
1718 07-04 For God and Country—2025-07-11. Hellinore; propaganda poster; compare http://vintageposterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/ww2-odd.jpg and https://www.pinterest.com/pin/435652963923443375/. This is one that came a bit out of left field, although there are a handful of religious propaganda posters from the US and UK as shown at the links. Since Hellinore’s priesthood is/will be important to her in the story, I didn’t want to minimize it in this project; and I liked this image when it popped up.
1725 07-04 London Life 1942 calendar (REGULAR EDITION)—2025-07-12. Fang; pinup calendar. This is based on a thousand pinup calendars from the 1930s/40s/50s. Search for, e.g., “pinup calendars of the 1940s” for hundreds of hits online. The only rare characteristic of this calendar would be the ethnicity of the pinup. Although there are a few examples on line of 1930s and WW2 era Asian pinups, see, e.g., https://animalia-life.club/qa/pictures/asian-pin-up-art, I could not find any context on them including what countries they might have been printed in. Although, having some knowledge of the male condition, I find it hard to imagine there weren’t at least some underground images serving every interest and population around. Unlike later calendars, most of the 1940s calendars didn’t have different images for each month (Esquire and some magazines seemed to be the exception). Rather, a lot of them were intended as ads promoting largely male-oriented products to male customers, especially B2B sales in the automotive and electrical areas, etc. like the later SnapOn Tools calendars. The intent was for them to be hung on walls in the workplace as a permanent customer advertisement everybody (male) in the shop liked to pause and look at before, say, ordering a new electrical or automotive part. London Life was the title of an early (1920s-1940s) magazine that, although not really a fetish magazine, got into fetish areas especially in the reader letters section. It wound up being an inspiration for several of the pin-up and pulp artists and photographers of the 1940s-1960s. (Not to be confused with a later magazine with the same name that was published in the 1960s.)
1726 07-04 London Life 1942 calendar (SPECIAL EDITION)— 2025-07-12. Fang; pinup calendar. I couldn’t believe the AI gave me an image or two with Fang in black leather—and it even threw in what I’m going to assert is a whip. I had to use this one and decided to make it a special edition honoring the readers because of the readers’ role in the most fetishistic aspects of the magazine.
1937A 07-04 The Militias Need You!1937B 07-04 The Militias Need You!1938A 07-04 Do Not Tolerate Bourgeois Parasites!1938B 07-04 Do Not Tolerate Bourgeois Parasites!1939A 07-04 C.N.T. National Committee A.I.T., Office of Information and Propaganda (ABRIDGED version)1943 07-04 Gee!! We wish we were MEN We’d join the NAVY
These images are consistent with the general goals of the original project described in subsection A, but expand their subject matter to include World War One and Spanish Civil War images. The World War One image kind of slipped in just because the subject matter was irresistible. The Spanish Civil War images came in first, because it was part of the same era and geopolitical contests that led to World War Two; second, because I was less uncomfortable making unironic and uncritical reinterpretations of Spanish anarchist images than of communist Russian and Chinese ones, yet I didn’t want to entirely neglect the left-leaning Allies or treat them the same way I treated Axis nations despite the fact I more or less view them as similar to the Axis powers. (Recall here that in addition to their abysmal economic and liberty records, Stalin and Hitler actually commenced WW2 in Europe jointly by agreeing to carve up Eastern Europe. Stalin only moved over to the Allied side later, because Hitler stabbed him in the back, forcing him into an uneasy alliance with the Western Allies.) Third, despite some highly traditional messaging for women in some posters, others accepted them as coequals with men and used images of females as role models to recruit men and women alike. Fourth, I was surprised to discover that the anarchists (and some of their left-leaning allies) had a number of posters portraying people of color favorably. Finally, I have to say the Spanish Civil War posters are gorgeous; I at least find them, on average, more dramatic, impactful, and artistic than their World War Two counterparts, so it was a special pleasure to research and reinterpret them. The Spanish Civil War images are also notable for featuring Kadidia in the full glory of her personality and imposing physical presence. Once I started down this path I generated so many images I loved that I increased the number of posters with her in them, most obviously by including alternate versions primarily distinguished by having different images while keeping the same wording.
1937A & 1937B 07-04 The Militias Need You!—2025-07-05. Kadidia; propaganda poster (Arteche 1936); compare https://www.pineroabogado.es/single-post/2014/01/30/carteles-de-la-guerra-civil-espa-c3-b1ola-les-milicies-us-necessiten-2110. Translation (Catalan to English): Les milicies, us necessiten! The militias, they need you! I loved this image, because it uses a woman to recruit soldiers without regard to gender; i.e., unlike most images portraying women, even strong women, this one was not using female images to recruit exclusively females to female-specific units or roles (or to roles that were traditionally, if not necessarily, female, such as nurses), but to the mixed-gender militias, traditionally a male province. Kadidia is so “photogenic” I couldn’t make just one version.
1938A & 1938B 07-04 Do Not Tolerate Bourgeois Parasites!—2025-07-06. Kadidia, Penance; propaganda poster (Bofarull 1938); compare https://www.todocoleccion.net/carteles-guerra-civil/cartell-catala-guerra-civil-no-tolereu-cap-emboscat-bofarull-1937~x27093049. Translation (Catalan to English): Do Not Tolerate Bourgeois Parasites! No Tolereu Els Paraàsits Burgesos!; P.S.U. Comissio Femenina P.S.U. Women’s Commission. This may be my favorite poster of all since the original has a pronounced femdom theme, depicting a fierce woman taking her slinking craven husband by the arm and, brooking no argument, demanding he report for his military duty; which for added effect, was produced by the Women’s Commission of the Unified Socialist Party (of Catalonia). The original wording of the poster was “No Tolereu Cap Emboscat” (Catalan), which translates to “Do Not Tolerate Ambushes.” I changed it because, frankly, the original Catalan didn’t seem to translate clearly or easily to English. Although I can reconstruct how the wording goes with the image, I tried to make the import of the poster clearer, without changing the wording or the sentence structure too much. Again, Kadidia is so “photogenic” I couldn’t make just one version.
1939A 07-04 C.N.T. National Committee A.I.T., Office of Information and Propaganda (ABRIDGED version)—UNABRIDGED VERSION CONTAINING FASCIST IMAGERY AVAILABLE AT PATREON.COM/THEREMAINDERMAN—2025-07-07. Kadidia; propaganda poster (Manuel Monleón 1936); compare https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/20775/bb5768786f/. This is representative of a number of posters from different Republican artists and factions which portrayed fascism as a snake, monster, or beast being battled by lone, heroic, naked or shirtless human. Interestingly, the humans were consistently portrayed as red-tinted (presumably because the left-leaning anarchists, syndicalists, and communists all had flags containing red), and the snakes, monsters, or beasts as green-tinted (presumably because green is the complimentary color to red). I particularly liked the coloring and composition of the 1936 Monleón version so used it here despite the rather boring verbiage which simply identified the source of the image. Having CNT and AIT is understandable; in effect, the poster is announcing these two anarchist organizations are fighting against fascism. The prominent reference to the CNT’s Office of Information and Propaganda is a bit more puzzling; it seems hardly relevant. In any event, other groups such as the Frente Popular de Asturias (“UHP”) had similar posters identifying them as the party of sweaty hunky workers hand-wrestling fascist serpents.
1943 07-04 Gee!! We wish we were MEN We’d join the NAVY—2025-07-08. Chastity & Penance; propaganda poster (Howard Chandler Christy 1918); compare https://www.bonhams.com/auction/30503/lot/68/howard-chandler-christy-1872-1952-gee-i-wish-i-were-a-man-id-join-the-navy/. This image may have been reissued in 1944 during World War Two, and the artist was alive during both wars, but the style of the image and the number of references to 1918, plus the likely retirement age of the artist by 1944, make me tend to believe it was originally a First World War image. I’m actually not a big fan of the original poster, but it was too perfect for ARP given the importance and fluidity of gender, especially Chastity’s and Penance’s. This one could be viewed as ironic or subversive relative to the original, but I interpret the irony here as more a comment on the two characters portrayed, purporting to question their manhood, rather than about the poster or its message.
This section moves beyond any reference to specific political figures or competing political interests to focus on the shared values and interests that are at the core of our Republic, and of a stable, civil, democratic society governed by the rule of law.
Either you believe in it and have the integrity to fight for it, or you don’t.
1775 07-04 Eternal Vigilance Is the Iron Price of Liberty—2025-06-30; Esmeray; propaganda poster. This phrase dates back to at least the 19th century in the US. Although apparently it was not used in relation to the American Revolution, it was popularized in the context of the abolition movement, a noble cause particularly apt today because it spoke to internal divisions within our society that went to the heart of the union formed in the American Revolutionary War period. It reminds us that we have to strive and that we cannot sit back and leave it to others, or fate, or tomorrow to protect ourselves. We cannot make excuses or hope silently that the current storm will blow over. Instead, every one of us must act to save our Republic, our way of life, our dignity, and ultimately our souls. A citizen pays the iron price for liberty every day because no other currency can buy it, no matter how socially or economically advantaged one is.
1776 07-04 Love of Liberty–DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION—2025-07-01; Esmeray; propaganda poster. How I feel; what I see in her expression and her character. The part of superhero mythology I believe in, or want to believe in, and feel dismayed to find lacking today: a shared respect for and love of liberty, and a desire by people to be the best version of themselves civically.
1777 07-04 América Libre—DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION—2025-07-02; Esmeray; propaganda poster. Translation: América Libre Free America. Alludes to the Cold War era and Cold War America (“Cuba Libre”), when Americans—for self-interest, and because of their genuine moral beliefs and simple human compassion—hoped for a better fate for another country. It reflects my belief that we do care about one another, nationally and internationally; and we should. I’m not saying it’s clear what the right course of action is internationally, or that we need to agree on it. I’m just saying human respect and support are good things, and nurturing them makes us all better off; whereas tearing down other countries and breaking off ties with them for the sake of doing so, is ultimately a self-destructive, dangerous, and self-impoverishing act. And especially, at this time, when Americans are so divided and our institutions of government are so paralyzed, we should not be disdaining the rest of the world or looking down on it. We should be trying to learn from it—in my view, the parliamentary model of democracy, although faaaar from a panacea, has lessons for us in how to make our politicians more accountable by making it harder for them to blame other Americans for problems instead of trying to fix them.
1778 07-04 Americans will always fight for Liberty… 2025?—2025-07-03; Lancelot; propaganda poster. Compare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_Will_Always_Fight_for_Liberty. This one is a deep prayer and a call to action rooted in a previous time that required Americans to rise to a challenge, and reminded them then that they could do it because they had done it before. But the crises of the present can only be answered in the present; so we today must exercise our own virtues and willpower to re-earn what our ancestors gifted on to us; rather than telling stories of more glorious days while letting the side down now.
1789 07-04 LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC! Liberty is EVERY citizen’s duty!—2025-07-04; Young Hellinore, Young Esmeray; compare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Leading_the_People. Translation: LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC! VIVE LA RÉPUBLIQUE !, Liberty is EVERY citizen’s duty! La liberté est le devoir de TOUT citoyen ! Expresses the reciprocity between one person’s tolerance and another’s liberty; to live in liberty with other people, we must respect their liberty as well, especially when we disagree with them but can live with their choices for themselves. Expresses that our moral strength is found in duties not privileges and that duty and privilege are opposite sides of the same coin. Emphasizes that there can be no exceptions to citizenship; cowardliness, hubris, and selfishness are bars to citizenship because they prevent one from putting anything above themselves. Expresses that liberty and other human values and interests are universal, and we should look for common ground with others rather than picking unnecessary fights.
1783 07-04 Join, or Die–Educate yourself, Compromise, Be Civil—2025-07-04; n/a; propaganda poster. Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Join%2C_or_Die. Arguably the first American propaganda image, because it was the first known image to advocate for the unity of the American colonies. Published, and apparently conceived, by Benjamin Franklin in 1754, to urge cooperation by the colonists in the French and Indian War, it was influential then, and a generation later when it—in a hundred different forms by a hundred different artists—became one of the most iconic propaganda pieces on behalf of the American Revolution. Its fundamental message is more relevant than ever, today; and the values it extols are as American as they can be.
1790 07-04 Long Live the Republic—DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION1774 07-04 American Maniac1779 07-04 Raising a Flag over Mar a Lago (faded)1780 07-04 Raising a Flag over Mar a Lago (sepia)1784 07-04 Such is life (ABRIDGED version)1785 07-04 Everything is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds (ABRIDGED version)1786 07-04 It’s good to be the king! He who saves his Country does not violate any law (ABRIDGED version)1787 07-04 I AM the deep state. Let them eat cake (ENGLISH version)1787 07-04 I AM the deep state. Let them eat cake (FRENCH version)1788 07-04 After us, the flood. Weep and watch us eat, you revolting peasants!
This section’s title is not intended to preach to Americans, but rather to clarify that while I am culturally deeply rooted in the Anglosphere, I have great respect for the French and my goal here is not to echo old jokes, but rather to help Americans recognize that we cannot well laugh at the French without pausing to ask whether their experiences are any different from our own.
These images are about the soul of America, not France; and the extreme hostility and division of America into two camps of people who don’t seem able to communicate with one another any more, even though our interests as fellow Americans are 98% aligned and only 2% unaligned, a problem I end up addressing most squarely in the last image, 1783.
The more I focused on propaganda, freedom, and civility in the present as the point, the less-relevant it was to limit examples to any specific historic time period. But as it happens, my starting point was WW2, the contemporary Golden Age of Comics, and what America’s obsession with fundamentally anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian superheroes might say about its challenges with self-awareness. Particularly since I found support for something I had long suspected: That not only was the original idea of a “superman” or “overman” underlying American superheroes the selfsame theory of Friedrich Nietzsche that inspired the Nazis, the inspiration for Superman’s moniker, the so-called “Man of Steel,” was none other than the mass-murdering dictator Joseph Stalin (“Stalin” was a pseudonym he adopted meaning “Man of Steel” or “steel man”). Numerous factors contributed to the success of the character and the genre, but critical to it was the fact that many people were highly receptive to the idea. Fantasies about how wonderful communism and fascism were in other countries in the 1930s were grossly misplaced, but understandable to some extent; and I wouldn’t hold them against anyone with the intellectual honesty and personal humility to learn over time when faced with their overwhelming and obvious flaws. But understandable or not, believing such fantasies was then, and is now, an existential threat to the things that really can make the future better: democracy, capitalism, and above all individual liberty. Falling for the fantasy that celebrities, the wealthy, strongmen, the vanguard of the proletariat, the purebloods, philosopher-kings, or any other category of special people can be or ought to be trusted with power over others is stupid and dangerous. Deciding that one cannot be bothered to educate oneself and vote responsibly, is stupid and dangerous. It reminds me of the old joke about playing cards: How can you tell who the sucker at the table is? It’s the coward who surrenders their faith in individuals, including their own agency and responsibility, then acts surprised when he or she is exploited. D’uh.
It’s no accident I picked crazy Esmeray as the primary representative of the US in this series of pictures. She expresses both my hopes that America can be its best, and my fear of its worst excesses.
1790 07-04 Long Live the Republic—DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION—2025-06-24; Esmeray; propaganda poster. I made this one, then discarded it in favor of the French posters when I started developing them, then brought it back to fill out the series because I like the image, and the reason I originally liked it was the way it seemed to draw a parallel between the experiences of the US and France, and the challenges they have faced in the past and they both face today.
1774 07-04 American Maniac—2025-06-24; Esmeray; more an explanation of the concerns and anxieties that helped motivate me to make this series, than WW2 subject matter itself. This image seeks to set up the issue by distinguishing between citizenship and partisanship. We can be members of the same civil society, and deal with one another as colleagues, without agreeing about everything. We can put the interests of our country ahead of other things, without being mindless jingoists or accepting an aggressive view towards the world, or a servile view of our relationship with US authorities. I would be pleased if the entire series could encourage Americans to reconsider the benefits of working with others since the evidence is overwhelming that everyone is better off when they cooperate to improve everyone’s lot, and is worse off when they view the world as a zero-sum game where the goal is to take as much from your neighbors as you can get away with. I’m not saying there isn’t a time for fighting or a time for standing up for yourself; there certainly are. But there’s nothing about 2025 that would make this the time for disrupting any alliances, let alone all of them. We as a country need to remember the value of cooperation and mutual respect.
1779 07-04 Raising a Flag over Mar a Lago (faded) & 1780 07-04 Raising a Flag over Mar a Lago (sepia)—2025-06-25; Esmeray; old personal photos. Compare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_a_Flag_over_the_Reichstag. The source photo is one of the most iconic photographs of World War 2, and came to mind when I was thinking about how to portray patriotism and superhero powers together: waving the flag on top of a building in Metropolis came to mind. And it involves Stalin, with a whole raft of ironies introduced by the fact the whole war in Europe started when Stalin and Hitler agreed to split Eastern Europe by force between them, and Western democracies objected to this horrific plan. Ultimately, I decided to use Mar a Lago as the building because it was symbolic of much of what I object to about America’s current situation. Long before Trump bought the property or ran for office, the US government refused to accept the estate as a gift for use as a Winter White House because it was too expensive to maintain. He later obtained the property at a discount by threatening to destroy its value if the owner didn’t sell, a tactic representative of his history of sharp dealing. After converting it to a club and being elected President, he used it into a way to charge people for access to a public official (himself) by making himself available in the club, which is only accessible to people who pay an exorbitant membership fee, much like the bribe-takers on the steps of the Vatican who once sold access to the Pope. Metaphorically, we do need to take back government from the place where it is wrongfully conducted in the corrupt twilight between private and public sectors, to the light of day. The idea that this is an acceptable or mainstream way to run a country ignores the fact that it is what traps most of the world’s population in a cycle of poverty and oppression to this day. We shouldn’t be accepting backsliding but instead should be trying to make our country better.
1784 07-04 Such is life (ABRIDGED version) & 1785 07-04 Everything is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds (ABRIDGED version)—UNABRIDGED VERSIONS CONTAINING FASCIST IMAGERY AVAILABLE AT PATREON.COM/THEREMAINDERMAN—2025-06-26; Martin (in 1784) & Cutter (in 1785); propaganda posters. Compare: https://www.alamy.com/vichy-france-ww2-propaganda-poster-against-communism-french-militia-supported-by-marshal-petain-anti-semitic-xenophobic-authoritarian-propaganda-poster-for-the-recruiting-recruitment-of-nazi-appeasement-appeasers-french-facist-militia-1943-signed-eric-ww2-world-war-ii-image466236767.html?imageid=218485E2-ED7B-4276-89BF-7FACCE305A9C&p=66052&pn=1&searchId=92fed0677eaf89ed1cdf2bada5be10e0&searchtype=0 (for basic composition, coloring and words) and https://www.alamy.com/vichy-france-propaganda-poster-1941-ww2-vintage-world-war-two-propaganda-poster-issued-by-the-vichy-government-world-war-ii-laissez-nous-tranquilles!-leave-us-in-peace!-image-of-a-french-family-planting-a-tree-with-four-black-beasts-three-dogs-and-a-three-headed-snake-symbolizing-the-enemies-indicated-in-writing-de-gaulle-freemasonry-the-lie-the-jew-ready-to-attack-the-land-of-france-and-its-inhabitants-vichy-france-french-rgime-de-vichy-is-the-common-name-of-the-french-state-tat-franais-headed-by-marshal-philippe-ptain-during-world-war-ii-image593595906.html?imageid=E4B5FB98-DA7E-43B7-B4CB-F56FEB1CA341&p=66052&pn=1&searchId=92fed0677eaf89ed1cdf2bada5be10e0&searchtype=0 for the thinly veiled theme that Germany has saved Frenchmen from any need to worry their pretty little heads about world events. Translation: C’est la vie Such is life (but I did not find any clear etymology online); Dans ce meilleur des mondes possibles, tout est au mieux In this best of all possible worlds, everything is for the best (apparently a shortened form of the original quote from Candide, instead of the direct language from the play). La Vie Française The French Life (in abridged version); Milice Française French Militia (in unabridged version).
Parrainé par l’École Européenne pour les Américains Sponsored by The European School for Americans; La Presse Française The French Press. The French Militia was a paramilitary organization created to assist the SS and Gestapo in suppressing the French Resistance. The rapid French collapse in World War Two resulted from a number of factors, including most sympathetically, that France—like its capitulating leader, Petain—was demonstrably a shell-shocked and traumatized version of the country that resisted the previous German invasion a generation before, that had been one of the primary battlegrounds of World War One, and that its military forces and tactics were greatly overmatched by those of Germany. But while acknowledging France lacked the endless steppes of the USSR or the English Channel of the UK to provide it with breathing room to sort itself out, it is a fact the USSR and the UK similarly had their asses summarily handed to them in their first encounters with the Wehrmacht, but fought on despite deprivations and losses. It is impossible to avoid some sense, though, that the swiftness of the capitulation, before the country’s armed forces were categorically defeated, reflected the fact French devotion to their own cause and Republican government were less passionate and committed than that of countries with governments and traditions much less worthy of loyalty than theirs. To me, that loss of faith and belief in a system that at the end of the day was worth fighting for or better yet improving upon, resulting in capitulation to a much-worse form of government, resonates strongly with the corrosive hostility of the internal US “culture wars” with their focus on lashing out at other Americans in indulgence of people’s petty rivalries and gripes, and at foreign countries for our own weaknesses, rather than remembering the much greater interests and values embodied in our history our moral strength and even our institutions, as frayed as they are. Certainly, our interests as Americans, humans, and moral agents are aligned with making democracy, liberty, and cooperation with others stronger, rather than abandoning them; and the benefits of our cooperation and tolerance are orders of magnitude larger than the ultimately small and unworthy bickering to which much of contemporary dialog often sink. Giving up did not serve the French very well in World War Two and it’s not serving Americans very well now. Yes, the French, galvanized and reminded of their values and heritage by the shock of occupation, returned better and stronger with a vibrant, even defiant, democracy after the war was over. But could we please pull our collective heads out and work together, within the rule of law, to make America better without having to shoot ourselves repeatedly in the hands, feet, and other body parts first, to remember why that’s a bad idea?
1786 07-04 It’s good to be the king! He who saves his Country does not violate any law (ABRIDGED version)— Unabridged version containing graffiti including sexual themes at 07-04 DEFEND THE CONSTITUTON at Patreon.com/TheRemainderman
—2025-06-27; Penny, Chastity; propaganda poster. Compare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z8SpgmF0sA and https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-if-it-saves-country-its-not-illegal-2025-02-16/
Translation: (here translated *to* French) It’s good to be the king C’est bon d’être le roi; (here shown as translated in both directions) Celui qui sauve son pays n’enfreint aucune loi He who saves his Country does not violate any law; Parrainé par l’École Européenne pour les Américains Sponsored by The European School for Americans; La Presse Française The French Press. The first quote is from Mel Brooks’s History of the World Part 1 (1981); but to me, it captures the attitude of public figures who openly and unapologetically use their position and power for personal ends, to the wreckage of the state and private institutions, confident that the sheep below them will not question or criticize him for anything he does. The second quote is brilliant, because the President deliberately and knowingly quoted the dictator Napoleon I who returned France to monarchy and converted wars to defend the French Revolution, into wars for his personal aggrandizement and gain. Napoleon did have some achievements, like modern civil codes and courts to enforce them, on the plus side of his ledger; but it’s hard to understand how they could possibly outweigh his failed efforts at continental conquest, let alone his successful destruction of the last vestiges of the First French Republic. The fact the US President drew the same parallel between himself and Napoleon, and thus the US and France, supports my own comparisons in this series. The quote is also evocative of Richard Nixon’s claim that “when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal, by definition,” highlighting the extraordinarily dangerous tone of the President’s current speech. I have portrayed Napoleon making the statement while partying down during his very brief occupation of Moscow as the first snow of the season starts to fall, to highlight how unlikely the claim of being a singular savior of a nation really is.
1787 07-04 I AM the deep state. Let them eat cake (FRENCH & ENGLISH versions)—2025-06-28; Chastity, Penance; propaganda poster. Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L’%C3%89tat%2C_c’est_moi and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake. Translation: L’État, c’est moi I am the state; Qu’ils mangent de la brioche Let them eat cake. I like that this propaganda poster is built on not one, but two different quotations I was taught in history, but that are now questioned or rejected by historians (as discussed at the referenced links). At once, it reminds us that we have to adapt to changes, whether they make us comfortable or not; and be guided by reason and empirical evidence, rather than unfounded superstitions, no matter how comforting our superstitions are; yet at the same time, they’re particularly potent examples of propaganda because (to me at least) it’s clear why they have gathered such force despite their doubtful provenance. Wherever they came from, they capture important insights in a pithy, memorable fashion. They reflect realities and attitudes that still drive human behavior today by those who imagine their life circumstances are the only moral justification they need or care about. At the same time, they require us to exercise judgment about what has been proven, disproven, can be proven or disproven, or is unknown and unknowable; and how our knowledge of the truth (or lack thereof) must be a moral bound on discourse. I have pushed these issues further by adding the word “deep” because I think it may help clarify the relevance of an old quote to our present situation and debates, rather than misleading anyone about an issue that isn’t intended to be the focus here (literal translation).
1788 07-04 After us, the flood. Weep and watch us eat, you revolting peasants!—2025-06-29; Penance, Chastity; propaganda poster; compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apr%C3%A8s_moi%2C_le_d%C3%A9luge. Translation: Après nous, le déluge After us, the flood; Pleurez et regardez-nous manger, paysans révoltés ! Weep and watch us eat, you revolting peasants! I was taught King Louis XV was responsible for the first quote, acknowledging that the rot and vested interests inherent in the French Ancien Regime would not long survive the forces unleashed by the Enlightenment. Apparently it was more likely (and indeed fitting on some level) that his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, said it in the plural “Après nous, le déluge”. Scholars debate exactly who said it, and what they were referring to; but it still speaks to me, and seems an apt reflection of the stark conflict between the Enlightenment, reason, compassion, and knowledge on the one hand; and stupid bloody violence and tyranny on the other. The second phrase has no specific antecedent but simply expresses outrage at the degree to which people define themselves by how they believe they rank, instead of on their own terms. Whether it’s ordinary people showing deference to celebrities, the privileged, and the successful; or the fortunate few spitting on people below them simply because they can, it’s a loathsome, negative, hollow, and immoral way to live. It also references an old joke about peasants revolting.
1925 Man of steel materially transforms the superstructure to abolish private property and all the classes! (English version)1925 Man of steel materially transforms the superstructure to abolish private property and all the classes! (German version)1925 Man of steel materially transforms the superstructure to abolish private property and all the classes! (Russian version)1926 Man of Steel (ALT ver where AI didn’t print globe on beach ball but awesome expressions),1927 Man of Steel (ALT ver where AI gave S and un-Stalinish face but fantastic globe distortion)1928 Man of Steel (ALT ver where AI has him ironing nothing but love the coloring and style)1929 Man of Steel (ALT ver 2nd place for a variety of small factors)2025 Trump—Making the World Pay (BASE version)2025 Trump—Making the World Pay … to Make America Mexico Again (Mexico version)2025 Trump—Making the World Pay … to Make America Jacksonian Again (Jacksonian version)2026 Trump (ALT ver with my favorite of several brilliant expressions)2027 Trump (ALT ver with awesome money globe)2028 Trump (ALT ver great eating money while sycophants applaud)
These images are broken out because they were the last added to the production, and because the existing post on this section was already pushing the outer boundaries of oversized posts. But these images are intended as part and parcel of subsection 07-04-H.
1925 Man of steel materially transforms the superstructure to abolish private property and all the classes! (English, German, and Russian versions)—2025-06-25. n/a; naked political statement; compare: https://www.rbth.com/history/334246-stalin-soviet-cult-personality. Translation (German English): Superman verändert den Überbau materiell, um das Privateigentum und alle Klassen abzuschaffen! Man of steel [lit: Superman] materially transforms the superstructure to abolish private property and all the classes! Translation (Russian English): Сталин существенно преобразует надстройку, чтобы уничтожить частную собственность и все классы! Man of steel [lit: Stalin] materially transforms the superstructure to abolish private property and all the classes! Stalin’s superhero costume has a “C” on it because that is the Cyrillic character starting his name and, I think (?) is associated with the “S” sound in English. For formatting consistency, I kept the foreign language to English translation format, I used English-language wording and sources for the original quotes, partly because it is difficult for me to access other versions and even more to determine which is the correct “original” language. Although Marx and Engels were both German, and presumably wrote and thought “first” in some way in German, many of their most famous quotes come from addresses at international conferences or publications directed towards international organizations. I don’t know if these addresses were given in German, French, or for that matter English although my general understanding is that in the Nineteenth Century French was still the predominant, er, lingua franca. The language of this poster actually crams together four quotes or parts of quotes where merging them seemed intellectually honest because I was stringing together concepts (such as materiality and transformation) that they often linked; although of course the poster deliberately makes a point which they might resist. But the intention of the posters is to attack their ideas head-on, not to misstate those ideas and avoid grappling with any issues. Although the USSR is mercifully gone from the world, this subject matter seemed not only relevant but necessary not only because of the connection between the man and the comic book genre, but because it hopefully provides some framework for comparing with 2025 in terms of where I’m coming from.
1926-1929 Man of Steel (4 ALT vers)—n/a; examples of process; n/a. 1926 Man of Steel (ALT ver where AI didn’t print globe on beach ball but awesome expressions), 1927 Man of Steel (ALT ver where AI gave S and un-Stalinish face but fantastic globe distortion), 1928 Man of Steel (ALT ver where AI has him ironing nothing but love the coloring and style), and 1929 Man of Steel (ALT ver 2nd place for a variety of small factors) are included first, because I liked things about them, and second to illustrate some of the challenges of working with AI, especially given the tight restriction on number of words, and the difficulty I have in keeping concepts and parts of the image distinct while the number of ideas I’m trying to inject goes up.
2025 Trump—Making the World Pay (BASE version), … to Make America Jacksonian Again (Jacksonian version), … to Make America Mexico Again (Mexico version)—n/a; naked political statement; n/a. Compare: https://mvau.lt/media/a79e0a4b-9695-4cee-ba10-156d617d3ddc, https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2025/02/fact-check-trump-crown-long-live-the-king-magazine-cover.html, https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/trump-posts-ai-generated-photo-of-himself-dressed-as-the-pope/6249230/. This, and to a much-milder extent, 1779-1780, are the only direct attacks I allowed myself on specific living political individuals or movements. I am concerned that posting them will cost me viewers, but the fact is, one of the worst problems we have in America today is people feeling like they can’t speak to people on the opposite side of the political divide, or that they’re not interested in hearing from people on the opposite side of the political divide. This is not an ad hominem attack since it’s all about policy not appearance or personality; and I generally avoid criticizing others if I can find a way around it, sometimes going too far in that direction. However, if I hesitated to express my very deeply-held views when I genuinely feel a need to express them to make important points, for fear of losing audience, (1) I wouldn’t have artistic integrity, and (2) (something I think is really artistically and politically important here): my biggest concern about the US is people not speaking their mind in a civilized way to people on the other side of any given political fence. So how can I possibly comment on that, without standing up and doing it? I wanted to do it, and I did. If you want to respond, please do so with constructive comments or with counter-works of your own. If you send me a message on DA I *will* check out your response on your website and offer any thoughts in response I might have. Let’s talk! (Not shout or ignore one another.). We have a lot to offer one another!
2026-2028 Trump (3 ALT vers)—n/a; examples of process; n/a. 2026 Trump (ALT ver with my favorite of several brilliant expressions), 2027 Trump (ALT ver with awesome money globe), and 2028 Trump (ALT ver great eating money while sycophants applaud) are included first, because I liked things about them, and second to illustrate some of the challenges of working with AI, especially the difficulty of getting it to portray specific actions, especially ones that sound violent with respect to symbols (e.g., smashing a globe). It took a LOT of work to get it to do anything other than sprinkle dust or snow on top of the globe. I believe I drew a policy-violation-you-could-be-banned warning when I tried specifying “Donald Trump” in an image months ago, so I had to try describing his face and toss out many, many, many otherwise-promising versions because I didn’t feel like they “vibed” Trump. On top of that, I became convinced that at some point the AI started fighting me on descriptions that sound like Trump; query whether Big Tech has muzzled its most dynamic creations to prevent anything other than glorifications of their great helmsman, Trump, e.g., “orange hair,” the same way Chinese censors erase references to Winnie the Pooh because of its use in the past to refer to President Xi (who you risk your life and family to criticize directly in the PRC). Certainly, the White House’s production of AI-generated images showing Trump as a King, the Pope, etc. suggest fawning on the Great Helmsman is allowed in Silicon Valley. But definitely not criticizing.
These images fall into two groups: Western Allied and Soviet. The Western images are unrealistic, in my view, only in the extent to which they bring to the surface, themes that were present but heavily downplayed at the time. Between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, the 1930s and 1940s were among the most socially disruptive in European history. Both regimes used forced labor, starvation, the cold, concentration camps, and death camps to kill and incarcerate millions, while shuffling ethnic groups and entire nations back and forth like chess pieces to suit their designs. All of the countries involved mobilized their populations for war, and to a greater extent than in previous wars, that included the mass mobilization of women in military, support, and industrial roles they had previously been discouraged from undertaking. The result was families and friends being taken apart while strangers were thrown together. This combined with longer-term trends and the general sense of “living for today” given the uncertainty of any future to change the ways workers were recruited, and the way romantic and sexual relationships formed and disintegrated. Recruiting posters of the time, sometimes subtly but unmistakably, suggested that men could get laid by demonstrating their masculinity through military service; and that women could meet these masculine warriors by joining auxiliary formations that worked in a support role for (in most countries) male warriors. The subtlety of some of these messages was deliberate because it was subversive: public sentiment generally discouraged women, in particular, from departing from historical norms and expectations; and was alarmed by the disruptions of war. But government propagandists used forbidden messaging anyway, often by remaining indirect and vague enough that their methods could be plausibly denied. The Soviet image is unrealistic because even though it represents a loudly-touted message of international harmony and unity in communist ideology, that ideology was at complete odds with the highly nationalistic and ethnic realities of Soviet propaganda and policy. There was a categorical inconsistency between, on the one hand, egalitarian Marxian and other communist messaging that preached the end of nationalism and racism in favor of class-based cooperation; and on the other hand, the extent to which Stalin used appeals to nationalism and patriotism to rally support within the Soviet Union for the war and for his regime; while simultaneously directing genocidal measures against ethnic groups and nations considered disloyal or risky from the Pacific Ocean to the Elbe river. The fact Stalin, himself a Georgian, relied primarily on Russian nationalism, is just another ironic twist. Western and Soviet propaganda were thus similar in their hypocrisy and cynicism.
1719 07-04 Flying Aces cover July 1940–Britain’s Youngest Ace—2025-06-13; Rivqah, Roger, and Miryam; magazine cover; compare https://www.airplanesandrockets.com/magazines/flying-aces/images/flying-aces-may-1941-cover.jpg. In reality, virtually every “Flying Aces” cover had an airplane on the cover, not people away from airplanes. However, the image struck me as the kind of image gossip magazines would use in reporting on interesting war-related personalities. I had originally had a mock cover of Collier’s magazine in mind; Colliers had several images of serviceman-and-his-wife during the war although having two women might have been a bit much for general-interest mass-circulation media of the time. In the end I went with Flying Aces because, duh, the title complemented the theme; they did in fact have (fictional and factual) articles about fighter aces; and it was a British magazine.
1720 07-04 Volunteer for Flying Duties—2025-06-14; Miryam, Roger, Rivqah; recruitment poster; compare https://www.alamy.com/british-ww2-royal-air-force-raf-recruitment-poster-volunteer-for-flying-duties-1942-1945-image418221186.html propaganda poster), of which there were a number of variants and of similarly-themed and composed posters, for the composition itself; and for the theme of recruitment posters suggesting that joining up is the best way to get laid, see, e.g., https://www.ebay.com/itm/284032713401.
1721 07-04 Take the Road to Victory—2025-06-14; Miryam, Roger, Rivqah; recruitment poster; compare
https://www.alamyimages.fr/la-seconde-guerre-mondiale-affiche-de-propagande-de-l-information-du-public-2-image351137925.html?imageid=3830CED0-63CD-4E2B-8EA0-0F6E32A3E753&p=639688&pn=1&searchId=577cfcdc58da60b6d23b057045f51060&searchtype=0 (for composition and wording generally). And for the theme of women seeking men: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/69031806763099077/ and https://www.alamy.com/ww2-propaganda-recruitment-serve-in-the-waaf-with-the-men-who-fly-british-ww2-recruitment-poster-womens-auxiliary-airforce-war-work-occupation-uk-1940s-world-war-ii-image503759123.html, (the latter of which I found when I was preparing this blurb, long after the image was generated, and even has the same pilot from 1720!) Yes, the base image in 1721 is exactly the same base image as that used in 1720 (although processed differently)! Posters directed at women were more subtle in the relationship messaging than those directed at men. Of course, unlike the male counterpart who is encouraged to be tempted by women, proposing women look for husbands in the services might have gone too far towards suggesting women who joined the supporting services were hussies, given the unequal gender expectations of the time, and the great fears of the time in most combatant countries that the social disruption and rapidly changing norms occasioned by the war were undermining conservative values and putting young women at extreme risk. Nonetheless, I went there with this poster, partly because I enjoyed the idea the same image, and even the same “V-for-Victory” slogan, might hold different messages for male and female viewers; and to highlight the differences between expected gender roles, and questioning what the motives for joining up were for men and women of the time. I thought about having Hellinore’s sisters be more upstanding ladies looking for marriage, instead of slags looking for a good time, but challenging instead of endorsing expectations is always more fun; and I was trying to think of ideas to get Miryam, Roger, and Rivqah in images that was not-inconsistent with the project.
1722 07-04 Be Stooge for Capitalist War (CPUK propaganda printed 1941-06-21 and taken down next day)—2025-06-14; Miryam, Roger, Rivqah; propaganda poster. I’m not a real big fan of communism, certainly not of the USSR, and found it repellant that communists in the Western allies were opposed to the war when Stalin was Hitler’s ally in carving up Europe; and when the war aims were more or less justified in terms of defending innocent people getting attacked, plundered, transported, enslaved, and killed by aggressive brutes (although clearly Britain’s desire for a balance of power, and naked French fear of Germany, were also critical), then suddenly did an about-face when Hitler stabbed Stalin in the back and it became a war about propping up Stalin’s regime in the name of global communist unity. Nonetheless, I found the idea irresistible because the complete about-face in attitudes highlights the antithetical and utterly inconsistent perspectives Western communists of the time were able to reconcile in their own minds.
1723 07-04 Skeevey Aunties welcome youngest Ace back to UK soil 1940-06-29—2025-06-14; Miryam, Roger, Rivqah; old private photo. See comments about posters for 1720-1722 regarding the origin of the image. When the AI gave me this image, it didn’t really tie into any of my planned posters; but I was too entertained by it to let it go to waste.
1724 07-04 Ace and his Aunties at the Officer’s Club the next morning 1940-06-30—2025-06-14; Rivqah, Roger, and Miryam; old private photo. See comments about posters for 1720-1722 regarding the origin of the image, and about 1723 regarding the appeal of the image.
1944 07-04 I’d rather be with them… than waiting–The WAC—2025-06-15; Penance & Chastity; motivational poster; compare https://www.alamy.com/id-rather-be-with-them-than-waiting-the-wac-womens-army-corps-american-ww2-female-war-work-poster-1941-1945-image424727714.html. American recruiters and marketing men seemed to be less subtle on the theme of women looking for men than the Brits. Yes, the slogan could be interpreted as having more of a war-priority meaning than I think it did; but we’re getting pretty out of the closet here. I loved this image because of the way it suggests Penny and Chas are half-dressed practically for foreign military-support duty, and half-dressed impractically for a cocktail party, mirroring the mixed message of the poster.
1942E&R 07-04 Workers of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant Named for F. Dzerzhinsky! Arise and Fight for the Revolution! Make Stalingrad the Graveyard of Fascism! (English & Russian)—2025-06-16; Kadidia; motivational poster; Translation (Russian to English): РАБОТНИКИ СТАЛИНГРАДСКОГО ТРАКТОРНОГО ЗАВОДА ИМЕНИ Ф. ДЗЕРЖИНСКОГО! Workers of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant Named for F. Dzerzhinsky!; СДЕЛАЕМ СТАЛИНГРАД КЛАДБИЩЕМ ФАШИЗМА! Make Stalingrad the Graveyard of Fascism!. I love the completely uninspiring wording of the factory name, which is typically Soviet; as is including turgid language like that in a propaganda poster. The factory named was one of three huge factories at the heart of Stalingrad’s industrial district that became a scene of prolonged and vicious fighting. All three factories were destroyed in the battle but rebuilt, 2 of them before the war ended. To my knowledge, the factory workers themselves didn’t drop their hammers and sickles to pick up rifles when they heard the German tanks approaching their factory; but the idea that they might is such a communist, and especially Soviet, trope I wanted to employ it. There were black workers in the USSR, including for example African-Americans disillusioned by America’s apartheid policies and system and attracted by socialism’s race-neutral language (along with white Americans attracted only by other propaganda messages). More’s the pity the USSR didn’t live up to it, despite their willingness to capitalize on America’s failings on race issues. Having a black woman lead a primarily white-male workforce to the barricades would not have been an alien idea to the leftists fighting on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War three years earlier, and indeed the Anarchist, Syndicalist, and Communist posters portraying strong women and heroic people of color are one of the reasons I expanded the project to include works referencing the Spanish Civil War. But multicultural internationalism, to the USSR, was a cynical means of recruiting foreign agents and causing disruption abroad, rather than a heavy theme in internal Soviet propaganda.
1717 07-04 The Viscountess Fensmere Reminds You to Kindly Keep Calm and Carry On1940 07-04 Wanted for Murder–of English with her smack talk1941 07-04 Set Europe Ablaze!–Anarchy ‘n’ the UK
PLEASE NOTE: Subsections (B), (C), and (E) will be posted out of order, beginning on July 5th, because I began posting the series in reverse order from July 4th until I realized I wasn’t going to have enough time to include everything in order.
The images here start to depart markedly from the goals of the original project described in Subsection A in that it doesn’t seem likely they would ever have been created; and therefore they do not aspire to historical authenticity but are instead editorial in nature, i.e., I am commenting on the times or the subject matter in some way, as discussed in the description of each work.
1717 07-04 The Viscountess Fensmere Reminds You to Kindly Keep Calm and Carry On—2025-06-10; Hellinore; motivational poster; compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On. The very-British, very understated upper-class stiff-upper-lip sterotype reflected by the original propaganda poster (which as noted in the linked article, was hardly used during the war because it was being withheld for use in the most-dire of circumstances, which were never deemed to have arrived) really made me think of a formal upper-crust event like a tea party where people could calmly discuss tea as bombs rained down around them. Or a Monty Python lampoon of the same.
1940 07-04 Wanted for Murder–of English with her smack talk—2025-06-11; Hellinore; motivational poster (Victor Keppler, 1944); compare https://goldenageposters.com/products/1944-wanted-for-murder-her-careless-talk-cost-lives-victor-keppler-wwii. The original was one of numerous posters produced by many combatants, warning their citizens to be careful not to reveal secrets with loose talk. I liked the idea of a wanted poster but frankly found the original a bit boring and lacking in context. I had taken Hellinore, an upper-class character, so far down the path of being loud, eccentric, and independent to the point of offensive, I wanted to take her further toward public enemy territory.
1941 07-04 Set Europe Ablaze!–Anarchy ‘n’ the UK—2025-06-12; Kadidia; motivational poster; compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_Executive#Wartime_commentaries_on_SOE. Churchill was said to have authorized the Special Operations Executive with a mission to “Set Europe Ablaze.” I did not find any reference to when its existence as an organization was made public, but suffice it to say, as a secret organization coordinating secret missions, it did not have any propaganda posters—at least, in its own name, or proclaiming its own purpose; although it may well have been involved in the distribution of propaganda materials without attribution. I chose Kadidia for this imaginary poster because other than 1782, which didn’t really showcase her personality or role, I didn’t find real WW2 posters with black women. In choosing her, I had in mind the SOE agent Noor Inayat Khan. I also like the spirited anarchic defiance of the message, which because it refers to Europe as a whole as the target area for operations, almost seemed to suggest an attack on the contintent’s culture and establishment as a whole by a radical outsider.
1685 07-04 We Can Do It!1686 07-04 LIFE America’s Secret Weapon1687 07-04 Young England Wants to Help1737 07-04 Help China! China Is Helping Us1736 07-04 On Our Side: The Chinese Fighter1738 07-04 This woman is your FRIEND–She fights for FREEDOM1781 07-04 Keep fit to fight1782 07-04 Cadet Nurse: The Girl with a Future1935 07-04 Join the ATS-Women with a will to Win-Apply at any Army Recruiting Centre (UK black version)1936 07-04 Join the ATS-Women with a will to Win-Apply at any Army Recruiting Centre (UK Union Jack version)1945 07-04 Defend them, they could be your mothers, your wives, your sisters, your daughters (abridged version)
The images in this first subset (07-04-A) of the Defend the Constitution! (07-04) project more-or-less represent what I originally set out to do with it: Place the characters from ARP into the context of actual, specific historical propaganda posters from World War Two in a way that both related to their role in ARP, and reflected the original character and intent of the propaganda posters they were based on. Hopefully there is plenty of personality in these images, but I don’t think they contain much tongue-in-cheek mockery of the original images or of the streams of intellectual thought they represented. In a couple of images (1736 & 1738), women are portrayed where women would probably have been outside the contemplation of the original poster makers; but overall, the messages here are generally consistent with the messages in the original posters, whether for good (the Allied posters) or bad (the Axis poster); and the liberties taken in using female characters don’t undermine or attack the source material per se.
1685 07-04 We Can Do It!—2025-06-02; Chava; motivational poster (J. Howard Miller 1943); compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Do_It! This poster actually became better-known as a result of a postwar revival of interest, than it was during the war. I liked its association with female empowerment, and the absence of any traditionalist trappings trying to shoehorn women supporting the war effort into an unequal or subordinate role to men. It’s just a matter-of-fact call to women, encouraging them and asking for their help and support. Chava seemed the obvious candidate for this poster as a physically-strong foundry worker in her own right.
1686 07-04 LIFE America’s Secret Weapon—2025-06-02; Chava; magazine cover (Norman Rockwell 1943); compare https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2013/07/rosie-the-riveter/. Notes: Deliberately switched magazines and style because I think of Life as iconic for WW2 images and I wasn’t interested in a Norman Rockwell vibe per se. Life had a few color covers although it was very rare in that era; but I liked Chava’s red color too much to make it B&W. As with 1685, I like the fact Rosie the Riveter is taken on her own terms without trying to limit her by proscribing her role or what it might mean; and knew instantly this one was right for Chava. Here we see an everyday moment from her life, that in no way distinguishes her from men in a stereotyping way.
1687 07-04 Young England Wants to Help—2025-06-03; Young Hellinore, Young Pentecost; motivational poster (F.T. Chapman c. 1939-1941); compare: https://go-leasing24.info/practice-areas/bergen-county-dyfs-lawyers/#google_vignette. Based on a poster from a US-based charity supporting Britain in the early years of World War Two urging American children to help in supporting Britain. I changed it to English supporting Dutch because the two characters are English, the English supported the Dutch in WW2, and in the lifetime of the two characters, the English supported the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. Although I generally disfavor children being encouraged to participate in warfare, e.g., being recruited for underage units like the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, excluding them from the sense of community encouraged in wartime would be alienating and devaluing. I think this poster suggests an appropriate route for helping without infantilizing them or emphasizing their undeniable role as particular victims of war.
1736 07-04 On Our Side: The Chinese Fighter—2025-06-04; Fang; educational poster (1944); compare: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/side-wwii-propaganda-posters-russia-1924405148. As indicated at the provided link, this is one of at least four posters in the “On Our Side” series along with British, French, and Russian counterparts. Like 1738, the original seemed to be part of a broader effort to educate Americans about the geography and nationalities involved in the war by explaining who our allies were. This image became a way to use one of the pilot images of Fang I really loved, despite the difficulties of getting accurate insignia on the plane itself (discussed elsewhere). In the original series of images, the flags of each nation were separate from the images with people; and the angle of the image made it plausible no insignia would be visible on the plane.
1738 07-04 This woman is your FRIEND–She fights for FREEDOM—2025-06-04; Hong; educational poster; compare https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/This-Man-is-Your-Friend-Chinese-1940s-WW2-Poster-by-Lueshis/102507112.LVTDI. I confess, when I first saw the original image on which this one is based, I took it as being of a piece with the wartime Life magazine article indistinguishable from phrenology or Aryan race theory, trying to explain how American readers could tell a Japanese person from a Chinese one just by looking at them. However, like 1736, this was one of a whole series of posters portraying European and Asian allies on an equal footing, presumably as part of an effort to educate Americans about who our allies were. This series was a bit bland artistically, but of the limited historically-authentic options available for portraying Asian characters positively on Allied propaganda, I decided to take it. Handily, the bar at the bottom of the poster also provided an elevated surface for Hong’s left boot without including any background from the underlying image, which would have been inconsistent with the original composition. Like many posters of the time, human figures were isolated from their original backgrounds before being included in posters.
1737 07-04 Help China! China Is Helping Us—2025-06-05; Hong; fundraising poster (James Montgomery Flagg c 1940-1942); compare: https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/p17208coll3/id/1014. This (like 1687) represents one of the numerous US wartime fundraising campaigns for various allied causes. United China Relief (“UCR”) brought together seven different China-relief organizations in the US dating to the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, and was later amalgamated with others into an umbrella organization that was an antecedent of the United Way. Given the frustrating difficulty with placing Hong and Fang into historically accurate contexts using the AI discussed elsewhere, I thought about making them actresses in movie posters, but the convention of the time in the US was to have white actors portray significant roles regardless of the character’s putative nationality; and in an effort to avoid attracting more Japanese attention than necessary (and perhaps to keep the left-leaning Chinese film industry more generally apolitical), the Nationalist Chinese movie industry was discouraged from overtly portraying warfare against the Japanese. Because the UCR’s purpose was to raise money for China, UCR images tended to portray the Chinese as sympathetic victims as well as fighters; but the image on which this one was based managed to fully convey the fighting spirit of the Chinese, in a way that to me (from the determined expression on the Chinese mother’s face and the soldier marching instead of recuperating despite being injured and not-quite-uniformed) suggested behind-the-scenes partisan resistance—which is how I imagined Hong participating in the war effort, sending radio reports on Japanese troop movements back to the Chinese army.
1781 07-04 Keep fit to fight—2025-06-06; Lancelot; motivational poster; compare https://www.dpvintageposters.com/posters/war-citizenship-public-causes/world-war-ii/american/heath-and-welfare/keep-fit-to-fight-original-american-wwii-air-force-physical-fitness-poster-no-3_9324. I wanted to find an appropriate but not boring or stereotyped platform for introducing Lancelot, perhaps the most traditionally male hero character likely to appear in ARP; and I decided for symmetry, to avoid diminishing women by comparison given my clearly-revealed preference for pinup, cheesecake, and similar depictions of women, that all of his appearances in this series had to have an aspect of beefcake: The more-unrealistic-while-pretending-to-be-realistic, the better. There are a number of US wartime posters of men that seem to modern eyes, at least, to have an erotic undertone, especially recruitment posters which from context strongly suggest that undertone is homoerotic. There was a fantastically unexpected US poster emphasizing hygiene depicting three hunky soldiers showering naked at a jungle encampment. But unfortunately, the AI wouldn’t let me even get close to doing it justice. This image was as close as I could get to that vibe, and I think it gets the job done.
1782 07-04 Cadet Nurse: The Girl with a Future—2025-06-07; Kadidia; recruitment poster; compare:
https://goldenageposters.com/products/1944-be-a-cadet-nurse-the-girl-with-a-future-jon-whitcomb-wwii-full-size?variant=44536213242136. This poster introduces Kadidia, in the form of the uniformed, determined nurse to the left, but provides only minimal information about who she is or what she represents. (More fulsome introduction of Kadidia to follow in subsections B, D, and F.). The reason for including this poster, despite its fairly uninteresting composition is really because, in the first phase of this project, when I was trying to be very true to historical antecedents, I was surprised by the near-total absence of minorities from any of the US World-War-Two posters I found online. This is notably in contrast not only to images from later US wars, but to earlier ones—at least in World War One and the Civil War, there was a clear and direct appeal to blacks to support the war effort. (Late in my research, after finishing this image, I came across a “Together We Win” image showing people of color fighting alongside a white soldier and I’ve kept that in case the reception for these posters is warm enough to persuade me to do another set.). I also found a US image portraying Japanese-Americans quietly cooperating in their own segregation and detention; and a couple of British images with minorities, one analogous to the US “Together We Win” poster, and another intended to recruit blacks from British colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Apparently before it was ever used, however, the British decided not to recruit black soldiers because they didn’t want to arm and train them given the anti-colonial sentiments gaining traction within the Empire. I would categorize the original of the Cadet Nurse poster as ambivalent on the issue of race; and did not find any online commentary to clarify the artist’s or the program’s intentions. The idea they could be black women is supported by the fact the Cadet Nurse program, apparently quite rarely for wartime government programs, was amended at the insistence of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to prevent racial discrimination, eventually recruiting more than 3,000 minorities including even Japanese-American women recruited from the US relocation (essentially concentration, although not as deadly as the Axis variety) camps.
1935 & 1936 07-04 Join the ATS-Women with a will to Win-Apply at any Army Recruiting Centre (UK black & Union Jack versions)—2025-06-08; Hellinore; propaganda poster; compare: https://www.alamy.com/vintage-ww2-recruitment-poster-with-female-ats-member-in-uniform-union-jack-flag-flies-behind-women-with-a-will-to-win!-join-the-ats-apply-at-any-army-recruiting-centre-1939-1945-image342804140.html?imageid=16439DED-FF10-4602-991A-74F85C0BBF85&p=66052&pn=1&searchId=eecbd4edf63c33347e7f7b028a6f8218&searchtype=0. I was thrilled to find a poster so emphatically directed towards independent female patriotism and personality, showing an assertive woman doing something other than supporting a man or looking for a man, that didn’t go out of its way to allude to traditional women’s roles. [1936 only: It was also a lot of fun pushing the adult-Hellinore in-your-face-bling-priestess image to yet another level, like a professional wrestler and valet rolled into one, in this and a couple of subsequent posters combining religious fervor with patriotism.]
1945 07-04 Defend them, they could be your mothers, your wives, your sisters, your daughters (abridged & unabridged versions)—Explicit version containing fascist imagery at 07-04[X] Defend them, they could be your mothers, your wives, your sisters, your daughters at Patreon.com/TheRemainderman. 2025-06-09; Penance & Chastity; propaganda poster (1944); compare: https://history.blog.fordham.edu/?p=257. Translation (English to Italian): Defend [all-female] them! Difendile!; They could be your mothers, your wives, your sisters, your daughters Potrebbero essere le tue madri, le tue mogli, le tue sorelle, le tue figlie. The original of this poster depicts a rape in progress, more explicitly than I could imply with AI or upload to DA without worrying about being kicked off again; but the image of the enemy menacing women is not at all uncommon in the period. The enemy is represented by a black man in the original, with obvious racist overtones. Nothing subtle or nuanced about the message there. I comment further on the racial issue in 1946; for historical accuracy, I was reluctant to shy away from the racist component; but in addition to worrying about the very real risk of the image being taken offline, and feeling a bit queasy myself about actually implementing the poster, racism among humans is not an overt theme of the first volume of ARP. Ultimately, I decided to execute it this way because it focuses more on the vulnerability and suffering of the women and thus the gender aspect of the underlying poster, which is more relevant to the themes and characters in the first volume of ARP.
