Glendale News-Press
Monday, October 29, 2007
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Artist is playing with a full deck
His poking fun of presidential politics puts the faces of the nation in your hand, unless you fold.
By Ryan Vaillancourt
News-Press
Glendale-based artist and entrepreneur Peter Green is the beneficiary of one of the world's most powerful and relentless marketing machines United States presidential elections. A former freelance editorial cartoonist for publications like the Los Angeles Times, Green ditched the newspaper business in the mid-1980's and started his own design firm.
With Peter Green Design studios, located in a third floor office on South Brand Boulevard, he consults on art direction and designs consumer products for the corporate likes of the Walt Disney Co. and Neopets.com.
But he hasn't lost the knack or the creative thirst for doing caricatures of the day's most controversial politicos, he said. So every four years, he designs a new batch of politics-themed playing cards, called Politicards, to coincide with the national election.
"I like to tell people I have a $3-billion ad campaign," he said.
Though the cards can be found near the checkout counter at stores like the Montrose Newsstand and the 76 gas station on Glendale Boulevard year-round, sales predictably pick up when the newspapers and pundits revisit the frenzied realm of election-year media coverage. "They sell pretty good [year-round]," said Mike Thompson, a cashier at the Montrose Newsstand, which has stocked Green's cards since 1996. "I'd say it's on people's agendas and I think this year, it'll be a little bit more because of the election."
Though Green has illustrated four decks of Politicards since 1996 including the 2008 deck, which hit the sales racks in August he created the first series in 1972. That deck, now a rare collector's item found only on Internet auction sites like eBay, portrayed President Nixon on the King of Spades, royally out-fitted with a golden crown. J. Edgar Hoover, the founder of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who was accused of spying on political dissidents, is shown clad in schoolboy clothes, standing on a box to get a look inside a building window.
The 1972 collection was an immediate sensation, due mostly, Green said, to a rave 1971 preview story in the Los Angeles Times by Bella Stumbo. The story ran with the headline, "Politicards sweeping the nation" and was syndicated nationwide.
The only problem, Green says, was that the headline was untrue.
When the story ran, Green and his partners hadn't inked a single deal with any retailers, but using the published story as leverage, the Green team convinced May Department Store to buy 20,000 decks. That supply sold out rapidly, and the fledgling company amassed a backlog of orders that crumbled after Green and his partners spent months trying to orchestrate another shipment of cards from their printer in Japan, he said.
"Eventually all those people got frustrated and canceled their orders," Green said.
Soon after, Green's partner sold the Politicards name to a Washington lobbyist, who continued printing cards, but allowed the patent to expire in 1996 just in time for an older, more business-savvy Green to snag his creation back and revitalize the brand.
After partnering with Glendale-based publisher Action Publishing to produce two decks, first in 1996, then again in 2000, Green struck out on his own in 2004, he said. And while the business model has been tweaked, and the cards are more colorful, the novelty of the subject matter remains unchanged.
From President George W. Bush and presidential hopeful Sen. Hilary Clinton, to comedic talk show host Jon Stewart featured on one of two jokers in the 2008 Politicards deck there are plenty of contemporary public figures that are ripe for the editorialist's pencil.
"This is the dream for me," Green said. "Take someone, put them in an environment and make a statement."
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Rocky Mountain News
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Clinton gift shop decks political playing cards
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer
In politics, as in poker, you've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.
That could explain why the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Ark., has decided not to stock a new set of satirical playing cards that portray Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as a less-than- flattering ace of spades.
The library's gift shop has stocked California artist Peter Green's "Politicards" for several years now. The 2004 edition still is a brisk seller, store manager Connie Fails reports.
But Fails balked at the way Sen. Clinton was portrayed in the 2008 edition - with thick thighs, a riding crop, stack of wire coat hangers and a salty quotation from the 1981 movie Mommie Dearest.
The cards were altered slightly to ease her concerns, but she later decided not to stock the cards for reasons related to the library's charitable tax status.
"We do have a sense of humor here," Fails told the Rocky Mountain News on Monday.
But she said the store would not sell the 2008 cards for the same reason the library won't stock any of the "Hillary for President" items that visitors constantly request.
"Because we're a 501(c), we're not supposed to be political," Fails said.
Politicards date back to the 1970s, when Green first produced a deck of politically themed playing cards that lampooned then-President Richard Nixon and others.
This year's deck features Hollywood themes, with Clinton as the ace of spades, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani - sketched in drag - as the ace of hearts and other candidates and politically minded celebrities filling out the deck.
Though once a liberal, Green says he's a libertarian-leaning conservative these days. But he skewers Democrats and Republicans alike.
"I can't take a position politically," he said. "My position is to draw attention to the issue and the candidates . . . and definitely not take it too seriously."
Clinton's caricature shows her as the domineering Joan Crawford character from the Hollywood biography, Mommie Dearest.
The wire hangers are an homage to one of the movie's more famous scenes, when Crawford allegedly went on a rampage because her daughter used wire hangers for finer clothing.
The quotation under Clinton's caricature is one of the movie's saltier lines, when Crawford ranted: "Don't f*** with me fellas. This ain't my first time at the rodeo."
Green said that after Fails raised concerns, he altered the quotation to replace the f*** with the word "mess."
"We thought, everyone knows Hillary has got a longshoreman's vocabulary," Green said. "They felt that Mommie Dearest and Joan Crawford was just more unflattering than most of the others. I think it probably just hit a sour note."
In the end, Fails said the decision not to sell the cards was not related to content - only the library's need to remain apolitical.
The 2004 cards, which portray Clinton as the "Queen of Denial," remain on sale.
Green said the library's sales represent just a tiny fraction of the several hundred thousand decks he expects to sell at gift shops, airport newsstands and online at Politicards.com.
But he said the decision was disappointing because of the prestige that comes from a presidential library stocking his product. (No other presidential libraries do so.)
"It seems that it's not that big a deal and it would show she has a sense of humor," Green said.
After all, Green figured, Clinton already has taped a campaign video parodying the gangland drama, The Sopranos.
"Positioning yourself with mobsters is worse than Joan Crawford," he said.
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Southland Sunday Magazine
June 18, 1972
What the Deuce?
All the Cards
Jane Fonda has been dropped. The champion of the Redskins has been replaced as Queen of Hearts by Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York, the nation's only black congresswoman. Senator George McGovern has snagged the King of Hearts from Sen. Edmund S. Muskie. Death has erased J. Edgar Hoover as the six of spades. George C. Wallace, governer of Alabama, has gone from Jack of Diamonds to question mark.
This is Politicards, the only game in town which changes the deck to reflect the latest news bulletins. It's a set of cards which carries its own slams and is the product of a Wilmington company which calls itself Politicards, Inc. Catching on from coast to coast (90,000 decks to date) it promises to wake up dull parties with a new deal of politics mixed with satire. Politicards are marketed (locally by Buffum's, the May Co. and Bullock's) at a retail price of $3.50 a deck by four impertinent partners -- president Michael Killeen, artist Peter Green, writer Lee Livingston and designer Norman Friant.
All cards are face cards in the sense each carries a flippant caricature. Republicans and conservatives are assigned the black suits and Democrats and liberals run in flaming diamonds and hearts. Artist Green, who originated the concept, said in his Hollywood studio that the literary scalping of Jane Fonda was intended to case no reflections on her role as a militant. "We just thought Shirley Chisholm was more active politically." The only major flap encountered by Politicards came from a reaction to a portrayal of black Sen. Edward W. Brooke smiling over a slice of watermelon as the Four of Clubs. However, Green reported, an eastern store which once questioned the Brooke caricature has now joined those sponsoring a national tour of the original art. "We think this is in line with the new attitudes shown in the popularity of 'All in the Family' and 'Sanford and Son,' " the artist said.
Conservatives have shown no pique over wearing the black hats. Strom Thurmond, the senator from South Carolina caricatured as the King of Clubs, has ordered more than 50 decks. Mamie Eisenhower has 70 for her Bridge games. A grade school in Atlanta is using the decks as flash cards to involve pupils in politics. The Jokers are William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer. The royal family of the White House has Richard Nixon as the King of Spades, Pat as Queen, Tricia as a Playboy Bunny, Julie as a Salvation Army lass. David Eisenhower has a toy boat and sailor suit. Martha Mitchell lounges in bed with a telephone and a martini.Deuces are wild for Paul McCloskey, Sen. John Tunney and Mayor Yorty. Jesse Unruh, former Big Daddy of the Assembly, makes the scene as the Three of Diamonds.
Politicards have gone through three printings and the fourth is at hand. The Wilmington conspiracy has now extended to Politikins, a set of cocktail napkins permitting you to dribble your drinks on the faces of 20 politicians. The newest venture involves 18x24 posters to be sold for a dollar in grocery stores. They caricature on the GOP side Dick and Pat Nixon, Spiro Agnew and Martha Mitchell. The Democrats are McGovern, Teddy Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and tenatively, Wallace.
Fifty pieces of original caricature art for Politicards will be auctioned in July to benefit a San Diego outfit known as Help Hospitalized Veterans and promote release of our POW's in Southeast Asia. The board of advisors for the benefit includes Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Debbie Reynolds and Sen. Alan Cranston.
When it comes to political bedfellows, you never know how the deck will be stacked.
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Time Magazine May 8, 1972 Vol.99, No. 19
American Notes
Humphrey? Go Fish
"All right gents, let's see some cards."
"Lookin' good. I've got Pat Nixon hawking pie, Jane of Arc Fonda on the battlements and Martha Mitchell on the phone."
"Read 'em and weep. Richard Nixon in an ermine robe, Strom Thurmond in a Confederate flag and Lyndon Johnson serving rockets at a barbeque."
Such are the hands drawn at a new game of satirical poker played with "Politicards." The idea was concocted by a Los Angeles copywriter-artist team, Lee Livingston and Peter Green, who turned a standard deck into a riffle of 54 political caricatures (including the two obvious jokers, William F. Buckley Jr. and Norman Mailer). All the black cards are Republicans, the reds Democrats. Deuce of spades is Little David Eisenhower in a sailor suit, clutching a toy boat. Tricia Nixon Cox, the four of spades, is a Playboy Bunny. Eugene McCarthy, the three of hearts, is Hamlet meditating upon a skull. A constabulary George Wallace is rated the jack of diamonds. The cards have been popular enough to go into their third edition, but they obviously need some updating. One of the present kings is Edmund Muskie.
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The Milwaukee Journal
GREEN SHEET
Tuesday, April 18, 1972
Stacking the Deck Politically Suits These Cards Just Fine
(No byline)
As a natural outgrowth of the view that politics is a game full of bluffs, finesses, trumpery and going fishing a new California firm has built a house of cards for political year 1972, with a Wisconsin artist supplying the caricatures.
Politicards, Inc., the brainchild of artist Peter Green, writer Lee Livingston and businessman Mike Killeen, now has on the market a package of playing cards featuring the political faces of this year's campaign, with the caricatures slamming all sides with equal zest.
The deck is also a sort of "poor man's Gallup Poll," the threesome says. Republicans and conservatives are the clubs and spades, Democrats and liberals are the hearts and diamonds, and they are all ranked within their suits according to Politicard's estimate of their power and influence. As the fortunes of the political battle change, the politicans' ranking on the cards will also be adjusted.
Wisconsin's Sen. William Proxmire, for example, is now the 5 of hearts, while Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, another Wisconsin boy, is the 9 of spades. The aces represent party symbols.
Green was born and raised in West Bend, studied at Layton School of Art here and now has a studio in Hollywood. He and Livingston had the idea for a political game back in 1971. Once they decided on playing cards, Livingston designed the cards and Green provided the caricatures, trying to make the satire arise from the character's political life, not his personal life. Killeen was called in to help market the cards.
There was a conscious attempt to make the satire broadly enough based so that most of the public would "get" the cards and be able to identify the faces. But a key to who is on what card is provided with each deck. The jokers are, incidentally, two former candidates for mayor of New York, Norman Mailer and William Buckley.
Green, whose parents live in Madison, spent months researching the characters and finding photographs of them before he started drawing. His originals were charcoal black and white, but transparencies of these were then colored to make the cards bright was well as biting. The cards were printed in Japan.
Politicards are being shipped to stores throughout the nation, and aside from the laughter the drawings may create, other reactions are likely among buyers.
Just think of that grand feeling of winning a poker hand with a full house consisting of kinds Muskie, Lyndon Johnson and Nixon, and queens Jane Fonda and Pat Nixon. Or taking a finesse at bridge in which you trap Strom Thurmond between a capitalist elephant and Martha Mitchell.
It is, after all, that kind of election year.
CAPTION: Peter Green with his caricatures. The one at bottom left is of Julie Nixon Eisenhower.
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The Los Angeles Times
VIEW
Monday, December 27 1971
Politicards Sweeping the Nation
By Bella Stumbo
A disheveled, determined Sen. John Tunney is caught primping painstakingly before his boudoir mirrorcomb guided by a nearby portrait of John Kennedy.
Tricia Nixon, overwhelmed by a mass of blonde hair and an angelic smile, has become a Playboy bunny.
Gov. Ronald Reagan, reduced to a paroxysm of uncontrollable rage, grits his teeth, clenches his fists and stomps a hippie.
Martha Mitchell is lying abed with a telephone, a martini and whimsical grin; Lyndon Johnson, looking like a toothlessly benign granny, serves up a barbequed bomb on a bun, while Sen. Edward Brooke blithely chomps watermelon and J. Edgar Hoover lecherously peeps through somebody's window.
And so on.
But all in jest, of course.
It's only the latest bit of slick political satire to sweep the nation, winning the hearts of harpoonery hounds everywhere, threatening even the heretofore unchallenged throne of Spiro Agnew wristwatches.
They're called, aptly enough, Politicards. Full decks of plastic-coated, non-frayable living-color playing cards, which bear the bitingly humorous caricatures of 50 percent of the country's most powerful or prominent political figureseverybody from a rat-faced, ermine-clad Richard Nixon (king of spades) to an evil-eyed smirking Billy Graham looming over a flock of frightened sheep (5 of clubs).
Since they went on sale nationally about two months ago, at $3.50 a deck, Politicards have been snatched up by everybody from a right-wing Orange County bookstorethe nation's largest distributor of American Flag decalsto underground purveyors of anything that's irreverent or anti-Establishment. (In Los Angeles, they're on sale at most May Co. stores, as well as several smaller shops.)
Even a few of the victims themselves, or their kindred, have been buying the cards.
New York Sen. James Buckley, who's depicted as a bland, righteous Puritan (four of clubs), reportedly bought 12 decks for Christmas gifts. And, Mamie Eisenhower's nephew allegedly bought 24 decks for the ladies of Mamie's bridge club to giggle over despite the fact that grandson David Eisenhower comes off as a drooling adolescent naval officer (two of spades) who's married to a fearsomely austere Salvation Army collector, Julie Nixon Eisenhower (three of spades).
A 'Who's Who'
The quick-witted mind behind America's latest snicker at itself is a fast-rising young talent of the caricature world named Peter Green, 26.
Sitting in the clutter of his tiny Sunset Blvd. Studio, the long-haired, mild-mannered Green describes his cards as "a sort of educational poor man's political Who's Who.' "
And he doesn't think any of his caricatures are unduly harsh on their victimsnot even Sen. Edward Brooke (four of clubs), whose portrayal as a watermelon-eating Uncle Tom has caused some leading department stores to refuse the cards.
"I don't think any of the caricatures are out of context in the political game," said Green. "All of these people, including Sen. Brooke, are used to being needled. Actually, I think the cards are, comparatively, sort of innocent and light-hearted in their approach."
Adverse Reaction
Adverse reaction to the Brooke card, he speculated, "is probably just general squeamishness because of the country's continuing sensitivity to the entire racial issue."
If anything, Green thinks some of his cards may be too mild. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (10 of diamonds) stands innocently holding his suitcases, ready to take off on some new venture.
"I've had a lot of criticism on both of those cards for not coming down a lot harder," said Green.
He's also been criticized, he says, for including only six women in his deckthe three Nixons, Mrs. Mitchell, Lady Bird Johnson and Jane Fonda.
"I'm no sexist I just couldn't come up with any other politically active women whose faces are commonly recognizable to the public.," Green explained. "Even using Jane Fonda was stretching it some, I thought."
In selecting personalities for the deck, Green sought figures who were not only politically prominent, but whose facial features or personality traits lent themselves readily to the art of caricature.
"Some people have faces that are just blahlike Gerald Ford (House minority leader). And Tricia Nixon. So I had to play with their personalities instead.
"For example, I've always thought anyone who comes on as sweet and proper as Tricia Nixon might have some secret desire to really let go somedaymaybe become a Playboy centerfold. So I made her a bunny."
Likewise, Green depicts consumer crusader Ralph Nader as a member of the Nader's Raiders gang, stealing a hubcap.
"Maybe he's fulfilling some early urge to belong to a teen gang, but is turning it into a positive goal, not a negative one," shrugged Green with an easy-going chuckle.
As much as anybody, Green is fascinated by the public's perpetual enthusiasm for the ancient art of caricature. But he thinks the explanation is probably simple.
"In caricature, you usually put a big head on a tiny body. And you focus on certain irregular, striking features of the subject's face. The result is that he looks funny.
"If it's someone powerful or famous, he also loses his altitude by becoming ludicrous. And people like to laugh at those who are in society."