The Great Big Book of Tomorrow: A Treasury of Cartoons (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Fun with x-acto knives and photocopiers..." (more)
Key Phrases: The Tabloid, King George, The American Prospect (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Tomorrow's "This Modern World" has been a reliable source of vitriolic political satire in alternative weeklies for 15 years, and, more recently, on Salon.com. Tomorrow's distinctive style involves photocopying images in sources ranging from 1950s advertising art to recent photos and setting them in text-heavy, multipanel strips. As distinctive as the strip looks, it is the content that separates Tomorrow from the pack. An unabashed Leftie, Tomorrow offers searing indictments of rapacious corporations, overbearing conservatives, and weak-kneed liberals (just to cite his most frequent targets) that stand in sharp relief to the anemic commentary that passes for most editorial cartooning. Besides a generous assortment of cartoons lambasting three presidential administrations, this career retrospective includes early zine pieces in which Tomorrow developed his style as well as his skepticism about the corporate world and consumerism, and a section of color work for the New Yorker and other national publications. Tomorrow's retro look draws readers in, his acerbic humor keeps them coming back, and his wry intelligence just might make them think. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

For more than fifteen years, Tom Tomorrow has been providing his uniquely acerbic, witty, and altogether clearheaded view of media, politics, and society in his syndicated cartoon.This massive showcasing of Tomorrow's greatest hits, unseen gems and obscurities, new material, and a color section is the most definitive collection to date of one of the most popular cartoonists ever-a delight for longtime fans and new readers alike.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (August 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312301774
• ISBN-13: 978-0312301774
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #344,320 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic for both long-time and brand-new readers, July 31, 2003

By	August J. Pollak (Teaneck, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

If you've never read a collection of Tom Tomorrow's work, this book covers everything in the This Modern World history. If you own any/all of Tom's previous books, you're getting more than your money's worth with stuff that's never been printed before: aside from a 12-year selection of TMW's best, the book's got a color section with (finally!) reprints of all the great stuff he's done for the Prospect and the Village Voice (unless you lived in NYC like I did, odds are you never saw the "Sensation" and Impeachment full-pagers in glorious full-color before- now you can!) and even early pre-Sparky cartoons.

"The Great Big Book of Tomorrow" is perfect for long-time readers eager to be rewarded for their long-time devotion, while offering an ample opportunity for newbies to enter the wonderful world of subversive cartoons that exceed any single-panel simplicity ever published in the mainstream press. If you're going to start reading intelligent cartoons, you might as well start with the best and the brightest.

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sparky the Wonder Penguin Triumphant!, August 2, 2003

By	"blm607" (Milwaukee, WI United States) - See all my reviews

Tom Tomorrow gathers his past cartoons, and plenty of rarely-seen or never-seen artwork also, into the first This Modern World compendium. A winner for those unfamiliar with his biting satire, or people who want to sample an overview of his career, or die hard fans. His social and political commentary is right on, and even the older stuff is still timely and relevant. Trace the development of Tom's signature style! See edited and banned cartoons! Choke with laughter at the pointed barbs at ...well, just about everybody!

Covers the Reagan years, bush, Clinton, and the begining of Bush 2 with straightforward criticism, honest humor, and biting satire (Act now and we'll throw in the Irony and Sarcasm COMPLETELY FREE) Tom (aka Dan Perkins) adds commentary and background for many of the strips, especially trhe older ones.

Worth every penny, and indispensible fo lovers of political and satirical humor, or just people who miss Bloom County. Haven't laughed this hard since the Dysfunctional Family Circus was operating. Buy two.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for Sparky loyalists!, September 3, 2003

By	David A. Bede (Singapore) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a Tom Tomorrow fan for about a decade now (his wonderfully undiplomatic cartoons about Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh were a breath of fresh air in the depressing 104th Congress era, and he's only gotten better), I can't say enough good things about this collection. These cartoons are as biting and persuasive as they are funny, and are often informative to boot - although, as the artist himself often concludes, it's sad to think telling the whole truth behind the news is so often left up to a talking penguin in a weekly comic strip!

Some of the cartoons collected here were previously published in earlier collections. But there's plenty of material reprinted here for the first time, including specials for the Village Voice and other alternative newspapers, and pre-"This Modern World" cartoons dating back to the mid-1980s. Most interesting of all (to me at least, and I expect to other longtime fans as well) is one of the very first strips published under the TMW name, circa 1987. Back then it was a science-fiction serial rather than a political strip, although it was topical in its own way then as now, and the trademark `50s kitsch was even more prominent. Add to that fifteen years of biting political wit, and you've got one of the smartest comics collections of, well, of this modern world!