A serio-comic map satirising Ronald Reagan's view of the World

HORSEY, David.

The World According to Ronald Reagan.
Seattle: AA Graphics Inc., 1982. Lithographic map, printed in black and brown. Sheet 585 x 895mm.

Folds.

A caricature map of the world, depicting President Reagan as a sheriff, his hands twitching over his six-guns as he eyes Leonid Brezhnev in the USSR. The president's figure fills an exaggerated California, with the rest of the U.S. divided between the Mid and South-West ('Republicans and Other Real Americans'), the North-east ('Democrats and Welfare Bums'), with a special mention for San Francisco ('Homos').
South of the border is 'Mariachi Land', El Salvador, 'Our Canal' and 'Banana Land'. Cuba is a 'Soviet Colony' and the Falklands Islands, in the year of the Falkland War against Argentina, are almost as big as South America.
Across the Atlantic the UK is marked Thatcher Land, France is labelled 'Socialists and Pacifists' and Africa is divided between Egypt and 'Negroes'. In Asia, a huge Israel also contains Beirut; Arabia is marked 'Our Oil' and Persia 'Muslim Fanatics'; mainland China is 'Their China' and Taiwan 'Our China'; and 'Japan Corporation' is shaped like a car.
In the Indian Ocean is a compass rose, with a central image of Granny and her apple pie, cardinal points 'West (Us)' and 'East (Them)'.
David Horsey (b. 1951) was an editorial cartoonist working for the Seattle Post Intelligencer when he drew this, the first of two world maps focusing on Reagan's foreign policy (the second, 1987, shows Gorbachev as the rival gunslinger). He won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1999 and 2003. He now works for the Los Angeles Times.


Stock ID : 22891