367: Bobby London - Artie Schnopp the Friendly Cop

“Artie Schnopp the Friendly Cop” by Bobby London
in "Left Field Funnies" 1972

This largely stands in for all the other occasions in underground comix when the word faggot is liberally thrown around. In most instances it comes from the mouths of uptight squares, conservatives right-wingers, and cops and the military. And then the use of “hippy faggots” and “queer punks” is to illustrate their ignorance of what the counterculture is really about.
Here it’s the fact that it’s the sole punchline which make it noteworthy.
Anyway, you can read this comic two ways. The first is the most obvious. That you can say many things intended to offend, but calling someone a “faggot” is just crossing the line.
Or is it a double bluff, that in the minds of the authorities and the rightwingers, since “faggot” is the worst thing they can think of calling the hippies, it is likewise the worst thing you can call them in return.
Either scenario rewards you with a necessary truncheon in the face.

366: Bobby London - Merton meets Yiddie Yippie

“Merton meets Yiddie Yippie” by Bobby London
in "Left Field Funnies" 1972

“Merton of the Movement” was London’s comic parody of hippy commune life and radical politics. These are the first few pages from a much longer story. For a change, and unlike most cartoons of this type by others, London recognises that there is a “Gay Lib”. However, his Gay Libber is a bearded man in a dress with a flower in his hair and elegant eyelashes who calls himself “Tiger Lily”. Now a few people did go to early Gay Lib marches in drag, but I don’t think London is drawing upon those instances. It’s just funny to draw a homosexual as somebody who wears women’s clothes, and so unfortunately it’s not much of a strain or particularly enlightened on London’s part. Then again, how many cartoons have you seen with a bisexual orgy? The musical notes thing when gay men speak gets old very fast, as far as I’m concerned. The near-blowjob with the venal Fidel is comically achieved without descending into homophobic abuse.