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Press, 2 July 1983, Page 18

The cartoons of Jules Feiffer have appeared since 1956. Feiffer became an international cult figure after the “Greenwich Voice” in New York began printing his series “Sick Sick Sick” in the late 19505. Now Feiffer has published an anthology of his work drawn from 26 years. He begins with what he calls “Village men and village women explaining themselves in an endless babble of self-interest, self-loathing, self-searching and evasion.” But, as he admits with some regret, politics took over. Much of the collection is taken up with the doings of successive American Presidents, from Ike to Reagan and what Feiffer calls “Movie America.” His cartoon Reagan preaches, that

Americans have lost their belief in the American dream and in the Soviet threat. The television President goes on: “Well, it’s plain common sense, you can’t have an American dream without a Soviet threat. So as a step towards restoring prosperity and gumption, my Administration is reintroducing the international communist conspiracy. Supply-side terrorism — it’ll make American great again.” The sample illustrated here from the Feiffer anthology comes from a slightly earlier period. Its message seems timeless and equally appropriate in New Zealand as in the United States. “Jules Feiffer’s America” is published by Penguin (254 pp, $21.95).