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The Führer and the Tramp #1-5
Publisher: Source Point Press
Story: Sean McArdle, Jon Judy
Artist: Dexter Wee
Colorist: Sean McArdle
Letters: Sean McArdle
Cover: Dexter Wee

For most the name Charlie Chaplin calls to mind the era of black and white silent film. Along with the likes of Buster Keaton and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Chaplin innovated in the medium as it matured, establishing what would become for many the quintessential foundations of comedic staging and performance in film. Best known for his iconic persona, “The (Little) Tramp”, as well as his penchant for endearingly self-deprecating humor punctuated with shrewdly pointed social satire, Chaplin found ways to make the world laugh by drawing on humanity’s capacity for empathy. In his roles, Chaplin crafted passionate performances that allowed the audience to engage and identify with endemic poverty and class discord while still being entertained at a time of catastrophic financial instability and burgeoning global fascism.          

In taking on the comedic genius as his protagonist, creator Sean McArdle endeavors to show us another side of Chaplin in his Eisner nominated The Fuhrer and the Tramp series. With this highly stylized and hilariously fictitious account of production on The Great Dictator, the diminutive showman embarks on a swashbuckling, larger than life adventure as an incidental spy and provocateur. Teaming with writer Jon Judy and artist Dexter Wee, McArdle’s take casts Chaplin as a frustrated liberal activist, hamstrung by studio politics. After a misunderstanding with a Nazi soldier leads to a chance encounter with the Fuhrer himself Charlie is presented with a seemingly serendipitous opportunity to openly tee off on the maniacal despot on the silver screen. 

After returning to his Hollywood studio, Charlie is recruited by President Roosevelt and cultivated as a covert asset by the beautiful and brilliant Hedy Lamarr. Once committed to his assignment it’s not long before Chaplin finds himself embroiled in a government-sanctioned propaganda effort against the Third Reich. Drawing the ire of thugs in the Pro-Nazi German-American Bund, clandestine saboteurs, and eventually the Fuhrer himself, Charlie must eventually set sail for Europe in hopes of drawing his foes into the light and completing his film in relative safety. As is usually the case, events don’t exactly go to plan. Joined by the enigmatic Errol Flynn and a host of iconic Hollywood celebrities, Chaplin must discover the fortitude to overcome threats to himself, his family, and his career as a filmmaker and take on arguably the most powerful despot in history.

It’s obvious Charlie’s supporting cast of golden age Hollywood elite have benefitted from the same exhaustive degree of research McArdle and Judy applied to Chaplin himself. Even simple anecdotal gags, like Charlie’s insistence on exploiting the prophylactic benefits of iodine, are grounded in reality. Consequently,  Lamarr’s untrained technical acumen should not be understated, as she actually was a co-inventor of a frequency hopping radio communications system, an updated version of which would eventually be employed by the United States Navy. Each of the characters recruited to aid in the hero’s raucous, over the top hijinks have documented ties to the Allied effort, though Flynn’s background is considerably murkier having been accused as a Nazi sympathizer and potential agent in Charles Higham’s controversial and uncorroborated 1980 autobiography, Errol Flynn: The Untold Story.

Honestly, for me, an indicator of really great fiction and an exemplary depth of detail in story development is its ability to inspire tangential exploration. The Fuhrer and the Tramp sent me down a rabbit hole for hours, digging into each of these iconic personalities and the events that shaped them. I will absolutely admit that this creative team has taken rather broad artistic license to punch up the action and pacing, and some instances of anachronistic dialogue are more distracting than others. That said, on the whole, we’re presented with a well-framed and beautifully drawn historical farce imbued with wit and charm that never disappoints; a very fitting homage to a tremendously talented artist. The Fuhrer and the Tramp will be available in print through a collaboration with Comics Experience and Source Point Press on March 25, 2020.       

Christian Davenport
cable201@comicattack.net

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