A Scary Blast from the Past:

In this spooky political season I am digging into the vaults for a couple of fitting pieces from 1984.  

This cover of the November 1984 issue of the Rocket got the paper banned from Pacific Lutheran University.

The "Take the Mask Off" graphic for the bus ad campaign 

“Take the Mask Off” was done for a bus card campaign produced by a group of Seattle artists and arts supporters who formed the group WADA, Working Artists for a Democratic Alternative.  Money was raised at a fundraiser where we watched the presidential debates on a wall of televisions.  I did the illustration and Dale Yarger did the graphic design.  It ran on 26 busses and was available as a poster and t-shirt.

"Take the Mask Off" on Third Avenue

On the bus 

This is the wrap-up spread that WADA sent to all of the supporters.  It documents the press, letters and timeline of the project. 

The screen printed poster.

P.S. (added on the Centennial of Ronald Wilson Reagan's birth): 

I want to remind people why he was associated with 'Teflon.' Reagan presented the American people with a happy face, which was deftly suited to politics. He seemed to many like an upbeat nice guy. But behind the mask, the Reagan administration defunded public programs, emptying mental institutions and expanding homelessness. Meanwhile the military budget was dramatically increased and the 'Military Industrial Complex' became much more deeply entrenched. The expanded roll of the School of the Americas, the illegal "secret" Contra War against Nicaragua and US support of dictatorships left a legacy that we still face. Sadly, these still do not stick and he is remembered for a buoyant economy and his "Shining City upon a hill..." I am still glad to have been a part of the effort many years ago to speak truth to power.