Earlier this summer, posters of President Barack Obama appearing as the ominous Joker from the most recent Batman movie, “The Dark Knight” began appearing around Los Angeles and other cities. The poster had sprawled on the bottom the word “Socialism.” Conservatives regard Obama’s domestic policies as importing socialism into the United States.

It created quite a political uproar. Conservative radio DJs promoted it, throwing contests aimed at increasing their presence on the streets. It has been replicated on t-shirts, bumper stickers and coffee mugs.

Critics attacked the image as racist, saying it conjured up the minstrel form of entertainment, in which white and black performers donned face paint to entertain white audiences. African Americans were often depicted as buffoons and clowns.

As the posters drew national attention, many wondered about the design’s origins. Last week, the Los Angeles Times traced down the artist, a 20 year-old Arab American from Chicago, Firas Alkhateeb.

Alkhateeb, who is of Palestinian descent, described how the design came about. Bored during a break from college, he took Obama’s famous portrait that adorned the cover of Time magazine, and used Adobe Photoshop software to alter the photo. He followed an online tutorial that was made for “Jokerizing” portraits. It took him 4-5 hours.

He uploaded it to his Flickr page. Someone found it on the photo-sharing website, downloaded it, and presumably added the word “Socialism” to it.

Produced last winter, it took until the summer to become a national icon, one with a right-wing grassroots campaign behind it and a powerful emotional appeal.

The University of Illinois, Chicago student, and history major, designed it as a response to what he saw as too much hype over the incoming president.

He told the Chicago Tribune: “I just thought everyone was going overboard with him, and I guess it was just my way of keeping a little ground beneath me and remembering that history is full of presidents who at first seem great. But I do like him.”

Overall, he supports the President, although he preferred the more liberal Democratic primary candidate, Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Rep. Kucinich made good in-roads into the Arab American community with his balanced but critical approach to the Israeli occupation.

Alkhateeb’s mother, Sanaa Alqudsi, disagreed with her son’s art.

“I am a fan of Obama,” she said. “All I am thinking is, ‘Why are you making him look that way in a picture? Why do a picture that could be taken so badly?’ Obama is not a bad guy!”

As a piece of art it won accolades and strong criticism.

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian called it, “brilliant piece of poisonous political propaganda I think I have ever seen.” He wondered if its power had to do with the health care reform debate. The Joker blew up a hospital in the film. This illustrates right-wing talking points about Obama’s health care plans.

One critic called the image a form of “cultural terrorism.”

Shepard Fairey, the renowned artist behind the prominent red, white and blue Obama campaign poster, dismissed the term socialism as idiotic. However, he said “the artwork is great in that it gets a point across really quickly. The Joker is a sinister, evil character that can’t be trusted. And if they want to make that parallel with Obama — bam.”

Alkhateeb disagreed with the use of the word “socialism” in the poster. “It really doesn’t make any sense to me at all,” he said. “To accuse him of being a socialist is really … immature. First of all, who said being a socialist is evil?”

Despite achieving more success and notoriety for his work than most artists ever will, Alkhateeb does not want to be an artist. He wants to be a high school history teacher and football coach.