Fame Part 2!

What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.- Lord Byron

Donald J. Trump, current president of the United States, is certainly famous or perhaps infamous. But he had fame and was mocked long before the presidency. One magazine that featured Trump was  science fiction and fantasy comics magazine Heavy Metal.

One Heavy Metal article in 1990 was created by artist Peter Kuper and was titled “the Wall”. In the story Donald J.Trump and fellow New York real-estate mogul Fred Helmsley conspire together to build a wall  to create “a haven for beautiful people.” Trump even gives his followers free hats! Read more about this amazingly prescient piece here. Or you can read the entire story colorized in the hardback “Drawn to New York: An Illustrated Chronicle of Three Decades in New York City” 

Mad Magazine, an American humor publication, was one of the magazines of choice in the childhood of the Strangest Adventures. Mad Magazine is another publication that often featured Trump long before he was president. In 1991, in Mad #300, they printed a modern day parody of the Wizard of Oz drawn by Sam Viviano that featured Trump as the Wizard of Odds and Trump’s now defunct casino Taj Mahal as Ephemeral City! It is now even more hilarious on so many more levels than originally intended.

In 1992 Mad lampooned Trump for over-hyping his success while at the same time having multiple bankruptcies. Once again drawn by Sam Viviano the article titled “WHEN SHOULD WE BELIEVE…? For some reason some people seem to be astounded that such an article exists so snopes had to verify it’s existence. 

Mad of course has not gone easy on Trump as a political candidate or as president, he is a favorite target of their irreverent brand of humor, for example.Trump still manages to appear on the cover of Mad quite frequently.

It must have been flattering when Time Magazine, a mainstream news publication, copied an image concept from Mad for their cover on May 18, 2017. 

Perhaps then Time should have also been flattered when it was discovered recently that Donald Trump was displaying a fake Time cover dated March 1, 2009 in at least five of his world wide golf clubs! The Time cover is an obvious fake. Fake News busted by the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold! MSNBC did a segment on this fake cover and Trump reacted. 

Here at the Strangest Adventures we think Trump is both hilarious and sad for desiring media acclaim so much that he displays fake news that seems to have been created in 2009 in his properties! We have a strong feeling this is not the last time we will hear about fake news.

Fame!

Fame is proof that people are gullible – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What does President Donald J. Trump want? Fame! Has he received sufficient fame yet? He is arguably one of the most famous people on Earth now. At The Strangest Adventures we suggest that he is famous beyond Earth too.

Trump has conducted his quest for fame from this gaudy building since 1983.

Trump has been famous for decades. While he was famous for being a real estate mogul in the 1980’s he gained notoriety in New York City on May 1, 1989 by paying $85,000 to take out full page advertisements  in all four of the city's major newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty. Trump said he wanted the ''criminals of every age'' who were accused of beating and raping a jogger in Central Park 12 days earlier ''to be afraid.''The ads said, in part, "Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so.”  Five juvenile males—four black and one Hispanic  were convicted of the crime but were later exonerated by DNA evidence. The story is here.

R.Crump was not very subtle about his feelings for Trump.

However those ads certainly seemed to  convince famous cartoonist R. Crumb that Trump was certainly a hateful man.

You can read the whole story of Trump getting his comeupannce here or buy Hup #1-#4 here.

Incredibly, in 2016 in true trumpian style, Trump continued to insist they were guilty, despite their complete exoneration in 2002! That man never apologizes for anything!

Trudeau: ‘If Trump wins, I’ll miss civilization as we know it.’

Even before then, on September 14, 1987, cartoonist Garry Trudeau ran the first Doonesbury comic strip that mentioned Donald Trump after Trump had floated a political trial balloon, hinting that he would run for president. Trump comic strips were later compiled and now can be purchased here.

Panel slightly altered for humorous effect.

Even earlier in 1975 in Spidey Super Stories #8, Spider-Man fought a very strange enemy, The Wall. Was this a foreshadowing of the wall that Donald Trump would promise in 2016? We doubt it, no one in 1975 could have predicted that he would promise a wall on the Southern border of the United States in 2016! However, in the 21st Century Trump would often be depicted as a villain.

 In just one example, he is villainous in Savage Dragon #226. More about Trump’s appearances in comic books and other media next time at The Strangest Adventures!