Able to leap from stupid to anti-semitic stupid in a single bound: It’s a goy! It’s a schmuck! No, it’s Foreskin Man!
No, I’m not joking. No, I didn’t make this up. See for yourself.
“Foreskin Man” is the creation of Matthew Hess. (Hess? I couldn’t make this up.) Hess is a San Diego, CA, based “intactivist,” fighting to keep baby foreskins intact.
Hess is the president of mgmbill.com, home of the “Male Genital Mutilation Bill.” According to the Washington Times, Hess is the author of the language of a November San Francisco ballot measure that would make circumcision illegal. A $1000 fine for violators and NO religious exceptions.
But enough facts! Back to the action!
By the light of day, Foreskin Man has a secret identity as a self-righteous hunk (cleverly disguised with glued-on pubic facial hair). His job? Why, he’s the head of the “Museum of Genital Integrity,” an evidently underfunded museum with only one exhibit: a simulated bloody infant circumcision. Ah, but after hours, our hero crawls into his dark, secret orifice cavern, stares at the golden foreskin of his costume, and waits. Waits…
…until the evil forces of circumcision rear their ugly heads! Foreskin Man bursts from his man-cave! Ready to do battle with – - the Jews!
Oh, no! It’s “Monster Mohel” and his goons! Evidently, Matthew Hess owns the only copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in which Jews are instructed to break down the doors of rich white people, carry machine guns, and circumcise at gunpoint.
Brazilian artist Gledson Barreto doesn’t miss an anti-semitic ink stroke. The mohel (the accurate term for describing someone Jewish and trained in circumcision) is depicted drooling with bloodlust, blank-eyed with evil, and leaping on the voluptuous Aryan mother, bashing her into unconsciousness.
One positive aspect to this comic: it’s increased my vocabulary.
In an inspiring example of justice, Foreskin Man kidnaps the baby. The baby is given up to the beach-loving “Intactivist Underground”: a hot babe, a biker who resembles a fat Gene Simmons, and a few male and female mannequins. As the sun sets, the Intactivists build a tower of circumstraints (boards for immobilizing infants for circumcision)…
And burn it.
A happy ending for the Intactivist Klan, and a clear message for the rest of us.
Fantagraphics Books
Last Gasp Books and Comix
McSweeney's Quarterly and Books
Zippy the Pinhead
Discussion (6) ¬
The moms Jewish, and the baby wasnt kidnapped, the mother asked FM to take the baby to her friend. Did you even fully read the comic or just skim? Im guessing you also missed the first episode where the hero battles Dr Mutilator, who ISNT a mohel obviously. But go ahead, skip over pieces to make this fit your this-is-anti-semetic rant.
First off, you choose “Anonymous” to identify yourself? Come on. I sign my name to my work. You’re afraid of a cartoonist? I don’t believe that.
Anyway, yeah, I fully read the comic. It’s pretty bad, but I read it. And I know comics. Let’s have a little discussion about Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel and Bob Kane some time. (All Jewish, by the way.)
Where does my accusation of anti-semitism come from? Honestly? It’s in the art. If you only read the words (which you must realize is inseparable from images in comics), the comic is merely strange, except for having a villain named “Monster Mohel.” No worse than having “The Putrid Priest.”
But the no-pupil, leering, drooling, Jewish Mohel leaning in for the blood of little white baby? It’s an image as offensive as if the villain were a African cannibal with a spear and a cooking pot. That being said, Hess mentioned that he has an upcoming African-genital-mutilation issue. I can’t wait.
And issue #1 with “Dr. Mutilator,” I’ll grant you that it isn’t anti-semitic. Bizarre, yes. Anti-doctor and western medicine? Sure. But not anti-semitic.
I’ll give you that the mother’s Jewish – but only by implication. Her name’s Sarah and her husband Jethro mentions their son’s Jewish heritage, which is passed down on the mother’s side. Are Hess and Barreto that informed about Jewish tradition? Are you?
And as for the ‘Intactivist KLAN’ remark, do you say the same about people who attend Burning Man? What about those who mark Nov 5th Bonfire Night with a burning effigy of Guy Fawkes? Are all in attendance KLAN members as well?
So you admit public burnings are symbolic. Guy Fawkes’ effigy is burned to symbolize the burning all of all traitors to the English King. The Burning Man is either a statement of self-expression, or an act of Dada nonsense. It’s safe to assume that ending Foreskin Man #2 was not meaningless, it was a statement.
And when you burn a symbol (what the hell IS that symbol, anyway) in a public place in the U.S.A., the most common symbol to burn is not Burning Man. It’s not the U.S. flag, and it’s certainly not Guy Fawkes. In the U.S.A., if you’re burning a symbol, it’s usually a cross. And that has a very definite meaning.
Were Hess and Barreto trying to evoke the cross-burning spirit of intimidation, with the threat of violence behind it? Perhaps, and perhaps not. But given the content of the issue, it’s hard to read the image differently.
The comic parody, Smegna Man Gets Circumcised, (published at Smegmaman.com) is a lot funnier; has a great plot; and passes along sound information about the medical and cosmetic benefits of the procedure– and, in the end, the villains meet a very appropriate end.
Ed Margolis