#59 - The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many

The tyranny of the minority, a well known problem of democratic organisation. The image of a triangle stabbing a circle recalls El Lissitzky's famous "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge" poster from the Russian Civil War. Even though Raczkowski's wedge is blue, the reference is likely deliberate and concerns some recent event in Polish politics, perhaps some agitation by ex-Communists.

#58 - Seasonal.

Spring seems to have been mugging some parts of the world with snow, though I think Raczkowski is more likely expressing the Polish bleakness that I've mentioned before. Hell could be better, and Spring could be your enemy.

#57 - English Protest

It's finally here: the first English version of the famous "Kurwa mać!" Thanks a million to M@ who handled the image manipulation. 

#56 - Junior executive

This is one of the first cartoons of R's I ever saw and it struck and still strikes me as deeply funny for reasons I don't fully understand. I particularly like the little boy's outburst in panel five, with its "sześć! sześć lat tato! jestem maluchem, szkrabem, malym chlopczykiem" - I've tried to get across the funny (to me) sound of szkrabem with tyke.

I don't know if the cartoon is a reference to contemporary events or just another riff on Raczkowski's theme of children encountering an adult world that is insane.

#55 - Group dynamics

Illustrating Freud's observation that "It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive manifestations of their aggressiveness."

The "you" is plural, which is marked in Polish grammar but not in English.

#54 - Gift means poison in German

I won't say anything about this except to point out the similarity with another cartoon combining toys and violence.

Merry Chrimbo.

Audience participation special

So it's long past time that Raczkowski's famous "Kurwa mać!" cartoon got an international treatment. However I can't decide what to put on the banner. Motherfucker? Fuck that? Damn it? Better to put up a blank one and let everyone make their own.

#53 - His master's voice

I don't know if Raczkowski is making a deeper point here beyond his usual theme of authority figures betraying the trust placed in them, but it doesn't matter. This is just flat out funny.

Language nerds may be interested to know that the man is literally saying "Wait here politely. Master will return shortly." That sounds odd in English so I changed it up. I wonder if any studies have been done on national differences in language used when speaking to animals.

#52 - please call with any information. any.

LOST                     FOUND

#51 - Election special

The original offers a choice between the Polish political parties PiS and Platforma. I've taken liberties with the translation to make the gag a little funnier for Anglophone readers who might be following the US election.

The original says, on the left, "The president is a cloddish rural unsophisticate" (there's no precise equivalent in English of the Polish word cham) and on the right "I love the president!" I believe it refers to a recent Polish president who was thought of as crude and boorish. I've attempted to give a version that works in English.

For other political Racz cartoons that can be read as comments on the US, or indeed almost any, election, see here and especially here.

#50 - Ordnung muss sein

"Go and put your toys in order."

In Polish literally "Go and make order with your toys." In English we'd probably say "Go clean up your toys", and the child here would then wash them, but Racz is using the Polish form to make a subtle political point: the child has learnt that order is imposed by violence. 

#49 - The upside of Hell

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Hell really exists.

And those of you who come here have a

really awful time.

But, it's still better than life...

...and better than in Heaven.

I'm not entirely certain what the joke is here. I'm guessing Racz is illustrating the fact that people lie, and people who mean you harm will lie about what's in store for you, even to the point of saying that what's good is worse than what's bad.

I put it up though because a Polish girl once said something similar to me. Her name was Alina and we were talking at the end of a small party in a friend's apartment in Upper Silesia. I was planning to spend the night in the largest room of the apartment, which was unheated. Alina said that it was too cold, that I'd freeze. I said "That’s okay, if I die I’ll be in Heaven and I won’t have any problems." Alina replied, totally deadpan, without skipping a beat:

"But you don’t know what kind of problems there are in Heaven. It could be worse."

That impressed me deeply. It could be worse in Heaven. I have sometimes thought of myself as pretty pessimistic but Alina's words demonstrate a degree of bleakness and hopelessness I can only regard with awe.

This comic reminds me of the Polish blackness Alina introduced me to, a level of despair that Americans have barely tasted but that Poles have marinated in for generations. "Hell could actually be the better deal - have you considered that?" And what if it is. What if it is.