Vanunu (1986)

December 01, 1986

Today's Golden Oldie is from December 1986. Twenty Five years ago!!

In 1985, Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at Israel's top-secret facility at Dimona, brought his camera to work and took about 60 photos of the place. These photos were then published in a London Sunday Times' exposé about Israel's "nuclear weapons program".

In 1986 he was tried in a secret trial. The country was shocked! So was I! Most people were shocked about what he had done. I was shocked that nobody asked how he was able to saunter around taking snapshots of the place.

Vanunu was convicted and was released in 2004, after 18 years in prison.

* * * The Guardian is now beating the drums for the guy in a piece published just last month (November 2011):

Mordechai Vanunu deserves freedom from Israel

"Vanunu's attempts to leave Israel have been dragging on for more than seven years now. He was released from prison in 2004, after serving 18 years, and told that he must wait another six months before he could leave the country and must not talk to any foreigners in the meantime. Since then, a cruel game of cat and mouse has been going on, with Vanunu periodically arrested and detained for technical breaches of his conditions." -more

We Beat Inflation (1986)

November 07, 1986

Today's Golden Oldie is a cartoon that I drew 25 years ago this month. It's from November 7, 1986. At the time, I was doing a special cartoon for the Jerusalem Post every Friday. It was, appropriately, called the Friday Dry Bones.

Back then we suddenly discovered that we Israelis had apperently beaten our runaway inflation into submission. We didn't, as the cartoon shows, know how we did it, but we had done it. And the Israeli Shekel has remained a strong currency to this very day.

My alter ego, Mr. Shuldig, who had been running a comic "anti-inflation" campaign at the time, appears in this cartoon in his "Spirit of the New Israel" caped superhero costume. Notice the "S" for Shuldig on his forehead.

It's About Time (1986)

Today's "Golden Oldie" is the Dry Bones cartoon that I did exactly 25 years ago today!

It was April 07, 1986 and Israel had not yet gone onto "Summer Time". It became a political issue and my cartoon alter ego, Mr. Shuldig, decided to get into the fight. In this cartoon he is a V-sign flashing, "sixties activist" for a supposed "movement" to turn our clocks ahead by one hour without government sanction!.

* * * Cartooning points: In this cartoon I wrestled with two problems presented by my drawing style.

One. Back then I did not draw dots in people's eyes. So in this cartoon I had to show the changing emotions on Mr. Shuldig's face with just eyebrows, mouth shapes, and squishing the old boy's head shape.

And Two. All cartoonists draw in either a 5-fingered or 4-fingered style. My characters have 4-fingers. No problem. Unless they have to flash a V-sign. Like Mr. Shuldig, in the last panel. Awkward.

Libyan Dictator Gaddafi (1986)

Today's Golden Oldie is from January 1986.
Twenty-five years ago.

A Dry Bones fan wrote to me and requested I find and run the cartoon. An appropriate choice as we watch what everyone agrees is Libyan Dictator Gaddafi's final act. We'll soon see if "everyone" is right.