Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year [Paperback]

Charles Brooks (Editor), Rep. Thomas OíNeill (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 1999 | Series: Best Editorial Cartoons

Published annually since 1973, Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year zeroes in on the past year's headline-making events. From the presidential election at home to the tragedy of hunger in Africa, 1984 is captured in more than 300 cartoons from 131 leading editorial cartoonists. Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr., Speaker of the House of Representatives and a fan of political cartoons, has written the foreword to the 1985 edition of Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year. O'Neill writes, "The walls of my Capitol office are testament to the fact that I have appreciated the humor even when I have not appreciated the point." Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year is widely recognized as the definitive compendium of leading cartoonists' views of national and international issues. Acclaimed as a concise yet far-ranging pictorial history, Publishers Weekly calls it "a great way to get the gut feeling of a year's history." The 1985 edition continues the standard of excellence established in previous editions. Cartoonists have set their sights on struggles with the economy, the world banking crisis, and foreign policy. The scandal of a dethroned Miss America is illustrated in several pages of cartoons. And the Republicans and the Democrats are at it again as Democrat Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice presidential candidate of a major political party, faces off against her opponent in front of American television audiences. ABOUT THE EDITOR Editor Charles Brooks is past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and for thirty-eight years was a cartoonist for the Birmingham News. He has been the recipient of thirteen Freedom Foundation Awards, a national VFW Award, two Vigilante Patriot Awards, and a Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Editor Charles Brooks is past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and for 38 years was a cartoonist for the Birmingham News . He has been the recipient of 13 Freedom Foundation Awards, a national VFW Award, two Vigilante Patriot Awards, and a Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Firebird Press; 1985 edition (July 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882894781
• ISBN-13: 978-0882894782
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Editorial cartoons enjoy the 1984 Reagan landslide, May 4, 2003

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Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year (Paperback)

Published annually since 1973, the "Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year" features the best work of some of the nation's most talented pen and ink commentators. This 1985 edition, recounting the events of 1984, contains over 300 examples of this sublime political art form by 131 editorial cartoonists. The cover cartoon of Ronald Reagan riding the United States like a horse reminds us that this was the President was reelected in a landslide (there is another cartoon inside that transforms the map into Reagan's face). Consequently, the opening salvos of this volume are devoted to President Reagan, Mondale and the Democrats, and the Presidential Debates. It is interesting to see that it was not the incumbent President but the challenger and his party that offered the better fodder for cartoons. After all, you have a former Vice-President whose administration had failed to be reelected heading the ticket along with Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be nominated for the second spot on the ticket. Then throw into the mix the scandal of the Gary Hart campaign and Jesse Jackson's association with various undesirables around the world. Editorial cartoonists must have been pinching themselves to make sure all this wonderful nonsense was really going on.

In addition to the devastating defeat of the Democrats in the presidential election there were also the topics of the nation's ballooning budget deficit, the parade of geriatric leaders in the Soviet Union, and the grim spectacle of faminine and starvation in Ethiopia. There are also the old standards of defense spending, the Middle East, religion in the schools, education in the schools, and crime. But usually it is those unique moments in American history, such as Miss America Vanessa Williams, the first black woman to win the crown, being forced to resign because of the publication of nude photographs (Historical footnote: Williams is doing much better today than Ferraro). It always happens that while flipping through these pages that the year under review comes back in all its details. A standard history of the year 1984 could not serve as well.

This particular volume is graced by a foreword by Rep. Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr., then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and himself a frequent subject of editorial cartoons (a half dozen choice examples of which accompany his words). O'Neil posits that the dictum that a picture is worth a thousand words applies doubly to editorial cartoons and celebrates both their power and their potency. Looking through these pages from almost two decades past proves the point: looking at an editorial cartoon on the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles can bring back the issue quite vividly. Then there is the poignancy of a couple of editorial cartoons that addressed President Reagan's announcement that a schoolteacher would be selected as the first "citizen passenger" to fly in space; the flight would probably take place in late 1985 or 1986.