Presented for your comparison: the cover of Warren Ellis’s novel Crooked Little Vein (2007) and the logo for Glenn Beck’s Common Sense Comedy tour (2009).

Mr Ellis is a noted writer, especially in the field of comics. Mr Beck presents shows for Fox News. You can probably guess whose work I admire more.

There is, I realise, the possibility that the snake image is based on something pre-existing – it does, for example, look a bit like an olde worlde map drawing of a river – and that the above snarking is missing a fundamental point. Put me straight, by all means – that’s what the Comment function is for.

EDITED TO ADD: the ever-vigilant Piers has pointed out that it’s derived from a common source – a woodcut by Benjamin Franklin from 1754. I am suitably chastened.