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Dick Hafer
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“”Equipped with a style that could have played well in Mad or even Playboy, Hafer was the right-wing's Jack Davis:
 a man who could, and did, lampoon any chosen target of what one could tent together as "Republican Interests". Gays, Hippies, Abortion, Ted Kennedy, the National Education Association, all sorts of terrible demons. But for everything he hated, he sure seemed fixated on talking at length about the nasty stuff. What would a psychologist say? |
| —Ethan Persoff[1] |
Dick Hafer (1937–2003) (not Dick Haver to one's disappointment) was a cartoonist who wrote and illustrated a plethora of batshit insane comics on right wing politics, anti-abortion, homophobia, anti-gun control, anti-communism, and Christian fundamentalism.[2][3][4] Hafer ran Freedomlight Publications, which published right wing fundamentalist comics, tracts, and other screeds. He also authored comics on model railroad collecting[5][6] and lightweight "family friendly" humor.[7][8][9]
Right wing politics[edit]
Hafer illustrated an offensive comic book attacking Michael Dukakis, the Democratic candidate in the 1988 United States presidential election. The hit piece, claiming that Dukakis supported witchcraft and bestiality, was proudly promoted at a Republican rally prior to the start of the 1988 Republican National Convention by none other than conservative blowhard Jerry Falwell. The comic book also shamelessly attacked Dukakis's wife Kitty.[10]
Hafer also drew another comic book hit piece on Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy during the senator's 1982 re-election campaign.[10][11]
In 1987, further cementing his credentials in right wing windbaggery, Hafer and Dick Crowley released Is Politics a Dirty Word?, a so-called "handbook for Christian patriots".[12]
Hafer illustrated other political cartoons for the Republican Party, including one for Dick Armey's first congressional candidacy in Texas in 1984.[3] He parodied the Canadian health care system in a comic called Medical Monster of Capitol Hill.[3]
Hafer's Shafted: Bill and Hillary's Excellent Adventure is a hit piece lamenting the 1993 election of Bill Clinton.[13]
Anti-gun control[edit]
In 1983, Hafer illustrated a tract entitled "Stop the Gun Collectors" for the lobbying group Gun Owners of America that was subsequently dumped onto members of the United States Congress.[14]
Hafer illustrated a number of screeds for Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), an extreme right wing organization that believes gun control is a code word for "disarming innocent people".[15] These pamphlets use "Gran'pa Jack", a stereotypical old codger, claiming that gun control in the United States is a racist slippery slope towards tyranny and destruction that has resulted in the death of over 170 million unarmed civilians in the twentieth century.[16]
Anti-abortion[edit]
In 1989, Hafer self-published I Know That We're a Throw-Away Society-- But This Is Ridiculous!, an anti-abortion screed with a cover rendering of a baby in a trash can. In the book, Hafer regurgitates all of the typical right wing anti-abortion talking points from that era.[17][18]
Fundie stuff[edit]
Through Hafer's Freedomlight Publications, he condemned the Ouija board as a "toy from hell" that "has triggered fierce demonic attacks" and that women have been "repeatedly and brutally raped" after using the toy. Hafer goes on to claim that demonic attacks are common and "they are usually backed by strong medical evidence."[19] Hafer's "Freedomlight Report" newsletter, co-produced with his son Carleton, was cited as a poorly sourced screedfest dealing with dealing with anti-Wiccan, anti-Pagan, and anti-Satanism issues.[20]
Homophobia[edit]
“”For 204 pages, this book covers both aspects of homosexuality from anal insertion to putting things up the butt. The book is narrated by three main characters: one guy making up medical facts about bath houses and anal leakage, a disgusted guy who is learning what gay people do for the first time and a gay guy who is ashamed of himself. And since the author is a stupid dick, all three characters are dipshits.
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| —Cracked, "The 4 Most Homophobic Comics Ever Created"[21] |
Hafer's most notorious work is Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Death-Style.[1][22][23] Published in 1986, when Reagan was president and the AIDS crisis was unfolding, Hafer's book tops out at over two hundred pages and provides an astonishing pile of hate, misinformation, bigotry, and even more hate. The book starts out early by dropping phrases such as "golden showers" and "fisting" and describing homosexuality as a "perverted sex addiction" backed up by quote mined statistics. He pokes fun at the Stonewall Inn riots in 1969 using crude stereotypes, and compares the Gay Liberation Front to "Algerian and Viet Cong terrorists." To Hafer, the homosexual lifestyle is "incomplete and sordid" and "totally absorbed by illicit sex!"[22]
The book warns readers that it contains "graphic details of the types of perverted acts homosexuals perform",[22]:49 then goes on to describe AIDS from a bigoted perspective. And, of course, it's the fault of those dang Democrats:
And since the early '60s, when the closet doors opened and the sodomites oozed out, the realized that...their future lay with liberal politicians. And in the United States during the past few decades, "liberal" is spelled d-e-m-o-c-r-a-t.[23]:88-89
As if this couldn't get any worse, Hafer dedicates an entire chapter linking homosexuality to child molestation, describing NAMBLA, and citing even more quote mined statistics.[23]:133-138 For good measure, Hafer pulls a lot of numbers out of his ass and links homosexuals to violent crime.[23]:139-149
And don't kid yourself...gay sex is disproportionately violent sex! A third of homosexuals and lesbians admit to sadomasochism![23]:145
Selected works[edit]
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) "Gran'pa Jack" tracts[edit]
- "Gun Control" Kills Kids!
- Can You Get a Fair Trial in America?
- It's Common Sense (to use our Bill of Rights)
- "Gun Control" is Racist!
- The United Nations is Killing Your Freedoms!
- Will "Gun Control" Make You Safer?
- Do Gun Prohibitionists Have a Mental Problem?
- Is America Becoming a Police State?
Freedomlight Publications[edit]
- America, Wake Up!
- Breaking the Stranglehold - The Liberation of Grenada
- The Militia in 20th Century America
- Combat Handbook for Parents with Children In Public Schools
- Who Is This Jesus, Anyway?
- Where Do You Get Off, Calling Me A Sinner?
- Of Course I'm A Christian...Aren't I?
- AIDS Is Looking For You
- Microscopic Monster
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dick Hafer, Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Death-Style, Paradigm Co, 1 January 1986, ISBN 0914981110
- ↑ The Comics Commando. Archived from Inc. Magazine, 1 June 1982.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 John Gizzi, Politics 2003 Week of September 1. Archived from humanevents.com, 29 August 2003.
- ↑ Christian Comics Pioneers. Archived from christiancomicsinternational.org, 25 August 2022.
- ↑ Dick Hafer, This Is Not the Honeymoon I Anticipated, Kalmbach Pub Co, 1 October 1996, ISBN 0890243026
- ↑ Dick Hafer, Sometimes You Gotta Compromise: A Light-Hearted Look at Model Railroading...and Model Railroaders, Greenberg Pub, 1 June 1995, ISBN 0890245649
- ↑ Dick Hafer, Church Chuckles, New Leaf Publishing Group, 1 December 1995, ISBN 0892213043
- ↑ Dick Hafer, Sunday Snickers, New Leaf Press, 1 March 2004, ISBN 0892215658
- ↑ Dick Hafer, So You Want a Dog: Questionable Answers to Your Questions About Doggie Ownership. Doral Publishing, 1 June 2004, ISBN 0944875947
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Dick Hafer, Magical Mike : the real story of the Mike Dukakis. Anthony Kane Associates, 1988.
- ↑ Dick Hafer, Every Family Has One: or....Even a Black Sheep Can Make It...Especially If He's a Rich Black Sheep!, Citizen's Organized to Replace Kennedy, 1982.
- ↑ Dale Crowley, Jr. and Dick Hafer, Is Politics a Dirty Word? or a Sacred Responsibility? : a handbook for Christian patriots, 1492-1988. Christian Political Education Publishers, 1987. Michigan State University Libraries, Special Collections Division, Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection.
- ↑ Christina M. Knopf, Politics in the Gutters: American Politicians and Elections in Comic Book Media. University Press of Mississippi, 2021. ISBN 9781496834270.
- ↑ New comic book is pro-gun. Suffolk News-Herald, Volume 61, Number 130, 1 June 1983.
The comic book, "Stop the Gun Collectors,’" published by Gun Owners of America Inc. and illustrated by Washington area artist Dick Hafer, asks for a minimum $15 donation to “Help us stamp out the liberal ‘Gun Collectors! ’” The pro-gun lobby, which describes itself as a “lean, action-oriented group that keeps the progun, anti-crime position in the public eye," distributed 10,000 copies of the comic book to members of Congress and other groups earlier this month.
- ↑ About JPFO: Fierce Defender of American Liberty. Archived from jpfo.org, 2 June 2017.
- ↑ "Gran'pa Jack" Educational Booklets, archived from jpfo.org, 2 June 2017.
- ↑ Dick Hafer, I Know That We're a Throw-Away Society-- But This Is Ridiculous!, Freedomlight Pr, 28 January 1989, ISBN 0942803000
- ↑ Dick Hafer, I Know That We're a Throw-Away Society-- But This Is Ridiculous! Another excerpt from ep.tc.
- ↑ Kerr Cuhulain, Spiritual Counterfeits. Archived from witchvox.com, 23 September 2002, citing Hafer's Freedomlight Report, Vol 1, No 3, Oct/Nov 1990.
- ↑ Modern Neo-paganism & The Occult, A Guide to Alternative Religions And Their Opponents, Chapter 18, The Modern Witch-hunters. Archived from slvrsplsh.freeservers.com, 27 August 2022.
- ↑ The 4 Most Homophobic Comics Ever Created. Cracked, 3 July 2011.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 "Dick Hafer was an asshole" Celebrating the self-titled Comics Commando. Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Death-Style part one, ep.tc.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 "Dick Hafer was an asshole" Part Two! Final Asshole Climax! Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Death-Style part two, ep.tc.