This is Historic Times » nukes

Fruit of Knowledge

deephurting — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 01:40:39 +0000

I had the basic idea for this cartoon quite some time ago, and the nuclear crisis in Japan, following the recent earthquake and tsunami disaster, finally gives me a reason to draw it.

I wanted to do something commenting on the dual nature of nuclear technology, with both its productive and destructive potentials, and thought the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in the story of Adam and Eve might make a good symbol for this. Since the current crisis originated in Japan, and Japan has certainly experienced more of the destructive side of nuclear technology than any other nation throughout history, I had a few rough designs for this cartoon attempting to use the sumi-e style of ink and wash, with an apple that resembled the red sun from the Japanese flag, but I abandoned this approach after deciding it muffled the cartoon’s message too much.

Coincidentally, the color palette I used in this ended up being very similar to an earlier cartoon I did on a related subject, around the same time last year.

The First Rule of Nuke Club

deephurting — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:06:14 +0000

Before commenting on this cartoon, for which I wouldn’t be surprised to get a lot of hate mail, I’d like to encourage readers to first make note of the previous piece I drew on this topic.

Here’s what I’m not arguing with this:

• That Iran has nuclear weapons, or is even necessarily pursuing them.
• That Iran’s current government can or cannot be trusted with nuclear technology.
• That Iran should or should not be welcomed into the proverbial nuclear clubhouse.
• That the international community literally has a “no Muslims” rule in effect on nuclear-armed nations.

The reason I drew this was to further illustrate my feeling that nobody can be trusted with nuclear weapons, but also to add that the double-standard the international community is applying to Iran seems unfair, especially when the two countries most aggressively criticizing them on the acquisition of nuclear technology are the only one who’s actually used nuclear weapons in an offensive manner (the United States), and an ally of the former who refuses to be open with the rest of the world about their own nuclear program (Israel). Israel, of course, has every right to feel threatened by the idea of Iran’s current government and other hostile regimes possessing such technology, but by the same token, I think a lot of Israel’s neighbors feel just as threatened by their alleged weapons.

Also, I found the image of the tree that’s also a mushroom cloud irresistible. I hope others find it clever, even if they dislike everything else about this drawing.

Many people may recognize the dialogue in this as being paraphrased from episode 2F09 of The Simpsons, “Homer the Great.”

Ahmadinejad Science

deephurting — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:56:04 +0000

Saddled with Debt

deephurting — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:31:27 +0000

The Face of (Ev)Il

deephurting — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 20:02:23 +0000