ANGRY STUDENT COMIX
About the Contributor
Elias Jimmy Gonzalez, Cartoonist
Elias Jimmy Gonzalez is an illustration major. Well, to be honest, that's a lie. His major changes every week. This week it's illustration. Last week?...
Elias Jimmy Gonzalez is an illustration major. Well, to be honest, that's a lie. His major changes every week. This week it's illustration. Last week?...
Jeffrey L Waters • May 20, 2021 at 12:15 am
I definitely qualify as a ‘geezer’, have a radio show on WHCM, and absolutely support your caricature of homophobia as being old and unattractive. I’m sure you have more subtle messages in your portfolio, but good and evil must sometimes be reduced to stereotypes to appeal to the masses. Anyway, congratulations on your award. Harper is the best junior college I have encountered in my many years of education, and I love your ‘About’ blurb. Rock on, brother.
Glenn-Paul Nehlsen • Jan 7, 2020 at 12:01 am
Hello Mr. Gonzalez:
I’ve listened to some people talk about your comic “Two Crusty Old Homophobic Geezers” (in case this email doesn’t directly link). As you would expect in any college liberal bastion, some said that the fat lines are body shaming and not appropriate for a college campus. Some have said that “geezer” is a derogatory term against the elderly, many of whom are students at Harper College. While I understand the points they are trying to make, I also understand broad spectrum in which comedians (particularly political cartoonist, who have the opportunity to grab and hold viewers’ attention for a limited window of time) are entitled to and completely expected to exploit in order to make important observations and incorporate them in their art.
This being said, I would like to share a tiny portion of my own story with you, in its short form. Between 1990 and 1992 I was a co-organizer of the first LGBTQ+ (or what we had called then a gay-straight alliance) club on campus. The primary reason recognition of the club took such a long time to be formally recognized, besides the social atmosphere of the time, was that the religious-conservative opposition to the club was being propped up by who was then the Director of Student Activities, who had her own agenda against the club. That woman blackmailed me by threatening the person whom, at the time, I had loved the most by using the media attention to “out” him.
I am not saying you are wrong to call out any administrator(s) for not supporting a healthy environment for students. However, sometimes one must have faith in the qualities of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association… especially on a college campus. In my years of experience in social progression (yes, I may be pushing “geezer” in a decade or two) I can offer you that this is the BEST time for students to be exposed to this level of absurd hatred, because it is during these formative years that most students will see the truly absurd within the absurdity, which is often unfortunately more difficult than it would seem to be.
During my recent three semesters here at Harper, after returning to redo what I was forced away from in the 90s, I have had the opportunity to get to know several of the administrators this comic was meant to criticize. My point is this: Most of these people got your back, even when you don’t believe they do.
Even so, I believe personally that there is much value in this singular three-panel comic as-is. Right or wrong, it draws out public discourse, like we are having now, and that is the ultimate goal of any political comic. So, kudos! Cartoonists who capture any portion of a public’s attention have unenumerated value. I don’t know if the originator of this comic has graduated or will continue in the semesters to come; but, whoever is holding the reigns, I hope you are ready for this year’s greatest challenge… to encourage the greatest possible percentage of our student body to participate in the upcoming election cycle, whatever their political beliefs!
Thank you for your time, your participation and your art!