1939.07 “No Wonder They Hate Dictators”
by Max P. Milians (1907-2005)
11 x 15 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Milians signed his cartoons with nine zeros (“millions”) as an underline. His work was syndicated across America from the 1930s up until the 1970s.

A schoolboy’s remorse during the action of land-grabbing, power-mad dictators: you cannot keep up with your geography lessons because these guys keep redrawing the maps.

In the lead-up to WW2, the German-Italian alliance started moving their pieces around on the chessboard. Danzig and Czechoslovakia starting in March, Italian threats against Greece and the invasion and appropriation of Albania in April.

This piece was probably not published. It is located on the backside of a July 1939 drawing commemorating the fate and destiny of the alliance between Hitler and Mussolini.