Perhaps he should’ve done more research.
Actor Elijah Wood has apologized after taking to Twitter to boast about his latest art purchase: an NFT by an artist who, as social-media users pointed out, has a history of racist drawings.
Input reports the actor, an avid collector of non-fungible tokens, purchased NFT artwork of a golden zombie bust on Oct. 27, writing in a now-deleted tweet, “Loving my Golden Zombie! Thank you, @JungleFreaksNFT @TrosleyNFT!!” The cartoon shows a golden zombie with its nose missing and specks of blood oozing from its mouth.
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Not long after Wood’s gushing post, social media users went on the attack and bashed Wood for collecting artwork by George Trosley. Input reports the artist is the creator of Jungle Freaks, a website dedicated to thousands of zombie-and-gorilla-inspired cartoons. The illustration site boasts that Trosley is a “legendary Hustler Mag cartoonist.”
The Twittersphere called out the 74-year-old artist for having drawn racist cartoons, some with degrading ethnic stereotypes or Nazi memorabilia. One of Trosley’s posts from the 1970s that surfaced online is of a Ku Klux Klan couple who just got married. The bride wears a veil, the husband is in a Klan hood, and their Klan friends celebrate the pair as they drive off with Black men—who had been lynched—tied to the back of the car. Trosley’s name is signed in the bottom right corner.
One user wrote, “The fact that people are still buying @JungleFreaksNFT by George Trosley says a lot about the NFT space. Speak up leaders in the space. #JUNGLEFREAKS racism.”
Along with the post, the user displayed a series of bigoted cartoons Trosley illustrated during his time with Hustler Magazine.
In response to the cartoons and artwork, one Twitter user wrote, “Well people care more about [money] than the art and this is disgusting. We are fighting for equal rights, for freedom and for better lives and this shit is there. WTF.”
“This is clearly what’s in someone’s heart, even if just to a lesser degree today,” another posted. “I don’t think you get to walk away from this sort of hatred unscathed, merely bcuz it was a long time ago.”
Amid the firestorm of outrage, Trosley’s son, who goes by the name “The Prince,” released a statement on the Jungle Freaks Twitter account apologizing for his dad’s problematic works.
“The cartoons my father drew are terrible. They were brought to light and there hasn’t been a better time to accept responsibility, learn from it, and extend sincerest apologies,” The Prince wrote.
“The Trosley family does not support or condone racism,” he continued. “I/We apologize to the holders of Jungle Freaks, our Discord community and the world at large for having to experience these past transgressions from the 1970s. But we thank the community for bringing about a teachable moment for myself and my father.”
Then, The Prince tried to redirect blame for his father’s artwork.
“This was the culture Larry Fl[y]nt & Hustler published,” he said. “It was incorrect then and it’s incorrect now. My father should not have participated in this.”
Flynt, the creator of Hustler (and from around the same Appalachian crater as this writer), was notorious for pornographic stories in his publications that included racism, such as X Marks the Slut: Branded Slave Broken for the Block. But regardless of The Prince’s lengthy explanation, users on social media weren’t buying any of it.
“Ok about the drawings from the 70’s, but how you gonna defend putting a nazi hat as a trait?” someone replied with an image of a current zombie cartoon wearing an SS hat on the Jungle Freaks site.
The title “Jungle Freaks” could even be seen as derogatory to Black people, who have long been portrayed by bigots as primitive and uncivilized, and compared to apes.
The online debate convinced Wood that his recent artwork purchase was not to be prized. Input reports that the actor owned several pieces by Trosley—but after the backlash, he decided to take a step back from his collection.
“After previously purchasing some NFTs, as well as being gifted one, I was made aware of some of the artist’s prior disturbing cartoons,” Wood wrote on Twitter. “Upon learning of this, I immediately sold the NFTs as I wholly denounce any form of racism.”
Wood said he donated the money he made from the art sales to Black Lives Matter and the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP.
Since the debacle, Input says that the value of Trosley’s cartoons has taken a nosedive. In the last few days, the news outlet reports that a third of Jungle Freaks’ current collection sold at 35 percent of its value.
