1943.09.13 “Still Talking Double-Talk”
by Louis Franklin Van Zelm (1895-1961)
10 x 12 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Published in the Christian Science Monitor. Born in NY and educated in parts of New England and New Jersey, Van Zelm was VP of a metal company in 1920, drawing on that side for the New York Evening World (“Rusty and Bob”).
During the 1920s he contributed cartoons to the Larchmont Gazette, and drew “Such Is Life.” A 1925 issue of The MIT Technology Review noted van Zelm's career changed: “All the yellow journals through the Middle West in mid-December printed long stories to the effect that L.F. van Zelm, whom we all remember as the best little cartoonist we had during our days at the Institute, has deserted architecture for cartooning, and is now cleaning up hordes of shekels as the perpetrator of a comic strip which makes a daily appearance in the dailies throughout that section. I feel sure all the gang join me in wishing Van the greatest success.”
He worked for the Christian Science Monitor from 1940-47, and then off and on again for the rest of his life. It was reported that on February 20, 1955, van Zelm filled his 50-room house, an old hotel, with gnomes and elves, and drew the daily cartoon, The VanGnomes, for the Christian Science Monitor. In 1958 he produced the strip Farnsworth.
Master cartoonist Van Zelm had a cranky editor (signed as "DMR") at the Monitor, and the guy seems to have had no compunctions about defacing a piece of artwork to get a point across. This cartoon finds the editor altering Van Zelm's dialogue balloon and then (in an attached note, reverse) griping about the supposed lateness of the piece.
The cartoon notes the surrender of Fascist Italy in WW2, as announced by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower on September 8, 1943.
On September 11, 1943, the Nazi Party newspaper Völkischer Beobachter reported:
“The Führer speaks to the German people about Italy’s betrayal … ‘I expect that the nation will do its duty … with bitter defiance.’” Hitler gave a radio address or public broadcast statement around that date, condemning Badoglio’s government and calling the armistice a treacherous act, promising Germany would strike back. In that broadcast he insisted the Italian “betrayal” would not deter German resistance, asserting that Germany would continue fighting the war unencumbered.
Internally, Hitler was furious; he labeled the Italians traitors and vowed reprisals, while simultaneously assuring Germans that the Reich would remain unbroken.
