Exposing the Grotesqueries of American Political Life Through Cartoons w/ Eli Valley

On this edition of Parallax, "America's angriest political cartoonist" Eli Valley joins the show to discuss his upcoming book The Museum of Degenerates: Portraits of the American Grotesque, available for pre-order now from OR Books, and his savage comics/cartoons that offer biting, scathing, acidic critiques of American political life and public figures like Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Shapiro, Joshua Shapiro, Abe Foxman, and many others. Although the focus of this episode isn't on Israel/Palestine and what is happening in Gaza or the West Bank specifically, it certainly lingers in the background and informs the discussion given how Eli's own views on the matter. In this conversation we'll discuss the influence of horror comics like EC Comics' Tales from the Crypt & the pulp-noirs of the 20th century on his cartoon style, Jewish authenticity and the influence of Jewish culture and intellectual thought on Valley's work, the Jewish American radical/progressive tradition, Netanyahu's speech to Congress, the rage that informs Eli's cartoons, right-wing American Jewish public figures aligning themselves with antisemites, the ADL, the role of the grotesque aesthetic in Eli's work, Eli's infamous cartoon lampooning Meghan McCain's appropriation of Jewish identity, Joshua Shapiro comparing pro-Palestinian protesters to the KKK, the Jewish American right-wing vs. Jewish American progressives, misconceptions people have about Eli's work, the disingenuousness of claims that Tim Walz was chosen a Kamala Harris' VP pick over Shapiro because of the antisemitism in the Democratic Party, has Eli paid a price for the approach he's taken to political cartoon (and, if so, has that price been worth it), and much, much more!

A sampling of Eli Valley's cartoons. These lampoon, in order, Donald Trump, Ben Shapiro, Joshua Shapiro, and Meghan McCain: