Bill Sienkiewicz 1990: Friendly Dictators Trading Cards

http://friendlydictators.blogspot.ca/

 

 

 

Sienkiewicz’s work on Brought to Light clearly made him a prime candidate to illustrate the Friendly Dictators trading cards. Like Brought to Light, it was published by Eclipse Enterprises and sought to use pop culture media to call attention to the American government’s and/or business’s cozy relationships with brutal regimes. The “cancelled” stamp element (also used in Brought to Light) refers to autocrats who eventually fell out of favor.

Seeing all these cards side-by-side, you can get a sense of the kind of artistic diversity-within-consistency Sienkiewicz is capable of.

These cards are out of print, but if you want to read the about America’s relationship with each of these dictators (maybe like me, you’re thinking Hitler? Really?), a bunch of websites like this one have transcribed these cards and recounts the details of each relationship.

I was in the mood to read about the previous evils this world has spit out and this card set and website hit all the right buttons. You would think people would learn after so many of these individuals become bloodthirsty dictators after gaining the support of the USA. To be fair, most were likely psychopaths before taking the job but you would think a world power would have a better vetting process. Pick the right horse in the race...not the most convenient. The US always starts off thinking they can control these bastards once they take power but that almost never happens. People continue to suffer often more under the new guy than the old guy he replaced.