Flu Toons from Our Past

Here are a few cartoons mostly drawn around 1918 and 1919 alluding to the H1N1 pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million (and that’s often regarded as a conservative estimate).

It is an unfortunate sort of deja vu -or is that history stuttering?--to see this North Carolina cartoon (above) from 100 years ago.

Walter Allman

Charles A. Voight

Edmund Gale

Most of the WWI cartoons I've seen stick it to Spain for the "Spanish Flu" which I've learned in recent readings is a major misconception. Spain was neutral during WWI.  All the warring nations had military censors suppressing the news of the Flu (not wanting the enemy to know their troops were in bad shape). Spain, minus military censors, freely reported the spread of the flu in its country. Hence, most of the early news regarding the flu was coming out of Spain = "Spanish Flu".

Edwina Dumm

Bud Fisher

A.B. Chapin 1919

The thing is, I've always wondered about the seemingly near total absence of references to the "Spanish" flu in our collective memory.  I recall listening to an old Jack Benny radio show on tape and Mary Livingston mentioned the influenza.  I knew that the blues-jazz guitarist great, Lonnie Johnson, had lost his family (parents, siblings, and more) to it.  And stories about its spread among troops in the trenches.  But few significant stories seemed to emerge in popular culture without digging a bit. I often wondered how the up-to-50 million deaths have never added up to much in our culture. I guess the elusive--down right invisible--nature of the thing makes it harder to get a grip on than, say, a world war with tanks and bombs.  Judging by many people today that's still true. 


For a much more in depth look at the subject check out Jared Gardner’s excellent Drawing Blood site:

 http://drawing-blood.org/outbreaks/the-spanish-flu-in-comics-strips-1918/