1942.06.26 "A Job to be Done" by Paul R Carmack

1942.06.26 “A Job to be Done”
by Paul R Carmack (1895-1977)
11.25 x 15 in., crayon and ink on board
Coppola Collection

Paul Carmack was a staff cartoonist for the Christian Science Monitor.

During the first half of 1942, the US endured six months of catastrophic shipping losses along the East Coast. Operation Paukenschlag (“Drumbeat”) had made the Atlantic Seaboard a killing ground, with tankers and freighters burning within sight of shore. Public anger was increasingly directed not just at Germany, but at US unpreparedness—blackouts, convoys, and air patrols had come late.

The call is clear, to move from passivity to action. The eagle is seizing, not guarding. And “A Job to Be Done” is future tense, not mission accomplished. The editorial decision favors optimism and confidence: No sailors drowning. No burning cities. No pleading civilians.