Art Young, "The Political Circus" from 1921
Art Young (1866-1943) was arguably the greatest radical cartoonist America has ever produced and also one of the very few political cartoonists whose work gives me continuous aesthetic pleasure. Via my friend Warren Bernard, here is an Art Young cartoon from 1921 which seems surprisingly timely.
Jeet -
Normally, your analysis is astute and thought provoking but this time…I’m not seeing it. The cartoon below the header has all the hallmarks of what makes political cartoons so awful – I’m not sure how this is anything more than a more atavistic forerunner of Herblock.
I think the most offensive thing about political cartoonists is the total lack of interest in craft – a journeyman superhero comic book artist like Dan Jurgens has shown signs of improvement over the 20 plus years I’ve been reading his work, but Gary Trudeau, is truly the Rob Liefield of political cartooning.
He even put a label on “check book”. My head hurts…