The American Dissident: Literature, Democracy & Dissidence
Caustic Cartoons by P. Maudit
We have become intolerably tired of scolding the rogues and dunces of this village to no purpose. The more shrilly we clamor against them the more irreclaimable they become. It has just dawned upon us in the light of a revelation, that mere verbal satire is a delusion and a cheat—that the battles of intellect are waged with stuffed clubs—that the pen is not only less mighty than the sword, but is even inferior to a well-wielded hand-saw...
—Ambrose Bierce
P. Maudit—poète maudit—is the editor's cartoonist sobriquet and was created in 1998 when the editor began autodidactically cartooning in an effort to illustrate The American Dissident. P. Maudit eventually became a paid feature on another website, and was almost hired by the academic publication Adjunct Advocate. Regarding the latter, see battle correspondance with editor Patricia Lesko. Inside HigherEd.com and The Chronicle of Higher Education also rejected Maudit's caustic academic cartoons.
Russell Streur, Camel Saloon editor, posted some 25 Maudit cartoons with accompanying interview.
Today, P. Maudit cartoons are a regular feature on Global Free Press.
Whenever possible, the editor informs the individuals criticized in the cartoons to hopefully foment, what partisans of the established order seem to detest most: vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy. The dialogue in the cartoons featuring real people is not fabricated but rather obtained via real conversations, email correspondence, and/or from magazines and books. Nothing is taken out of context to make an adversary look bad. No need for that at all!
For newly created weekly cartoons, check out The American Dissident Blog.