Government Gertie, a witty, sarcastic comic book created by artist Dorothy Bond, takes aim at the exhausting, chaotic, and often absurd lives of Washington’s Government Girls. Bond later gained fame for the syndicated strip “Chlorine,” a similarly humorous take on the life of a young secretary. Other books and strips in this same niche led to Bond being billed as “America’s No. 1 Woman Cartoonist.”
She was also a quirky one. Bond liked to work in a slip and high heels with a bottle of booze nearby. Comiclopedia quotes her assistant as recalling,”She made a deal with God, that she would never take a drink in the office, and when the ideas were totally vacant, she would storm into my office and grab the bottle and run out into the hall in her slip and high heels, with, I assume, a clear conscience.”
I was lucky enough to receive an original copy of Government Gertie from the family of a Government Girl who worked for a military attaché and traveled the world. This was one of the only mementos she saved from that chapter of her life. Here are a few panels from the book:
LIPSTICK BRIGADE 