Struggling and groaning under a load of property taxes, gas taxes, phone fees, cable fees and other government dips into your back pocket could revert us all to Shank’s mare, or bicycles and even tents and caves.

Fortunately, even the grim and most cloudy and miserable set of circumstances can be borne somewhat better through the bold, incisive and cutting antidotes for misery delivered by “Hagar the Horrible” and your own George Danby.

Danby’s brilliant “Billion Dollar Baby” (BDN, March 1) stands out as one of his many best this year, as he parodied a movie title to illustrate a president out of control with taxpayers’ money. Chris Browne’s “Hagar the Horrible” in the April 8 paper triggered yet another stomach explosion of laughter as the king’s masked tax collectors inform Hagar and his wife that their entertainment tax is due. “But we don’t entertain,” says an incredulous Mrs. Hagar. To which the tax assessor succinctly replies, “The king does.”

Both cartoonists are able to strip away the thin veneer that masquerades the performance of our elected officials, on the local, state and national political stages.

All tax collectors should be compelled to wear black robes and masks and carry sacks for the money, as they do in “Hagar.” Bush should wear a crown.

Ken Buckley

Bangor