Political cartoonists are essential historico-political reading
March 6, 2016
This Modern World, by Tom Tomorrow, has been collected into a “25 Years of” two volume set thanks to a Kickstarter.
I have been greatly enjoying it. I love social-commentary and political cartooning and think it should be required reading for all high school kids. Somehow, either as History, English or Civics (is that a class anymore?), a good survey of the most recent 30 or 40 years of political cartooning should be canon. Doonesbury and This Modern Life are tops on my list. Next up, the end of year anthologies from around the country.
DrugMonkey 
March 7, 2016 at 8:03 am
We used political cartoons a lot in my AP history course. Which BTW was easily the best-taught course I took until college (and beat most of college for that matter…).
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March 7, 2016 at 9:11 am
Doonesbury isn’t what it used to be, though. It just isn’t very angry anymore, and deals with trivia like Boomers lamenting that they are aging as much as the political stuff. The two Toms — Tom Tomorrow and Tom The Dancing Bug (his “Lucky Duck” strips in particular) are the real political strips of today.
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March 7, 2016 at 9:55 am
As I said, the past several decades. Trudeau 70s-80s is good and the Gulf War coverage was inspired. I actually haven’t read it regularly in at least a decade so I can’t say much about recent. But the beauty of such cartooning is that there is always another good voice to turn to, once your favorites lose it.
(Also, I enjoy social commentary cartooning as much as the strictly political. Probably not everyone is so enthused about that stuff.)
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March 7, 2016 at 10:39 am
Are images allowed in comments? Let’s find out.
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March 7, 2016 at 10:42 am
I guess not.
For social commentary, Bizarro by Piraro never ceases to fascinate and amuse, e.g. Marilyn Trump.
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March 7, 2016 at 10:47 am
You can use the IMG SRC= tag in comments, yes.
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March 7, 2016 at 11:01 am
“Bloom County” has returned to facebook. Must read. There is often great political commentary. Breathed seems to be enjoying his come-back there – no deadlines, no censorship (which I never knew about, but he has re-posted older original cartoons that had been heavily edited before going to press in the ’80s and ’90s). The other barrier that has been lifted is that weekday cartoons no longer need to be in black & white! It’s the best thing since toast. omg. It’s a reason to get up in the morning.
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March 8, 2016 at 2:27 pm
Isn’t it “This modern world”?
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March 8, 2016 at 2:47 pm
Isn’t it “This modern world”?
yes
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March 12, 2016 at 1:52 pm
Before there was Blackish, there was The Boondocks.
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