The Ultimate Topical Art

Editorial cartooning increasingly seems to be a dying art form, with one cartoonist after another falling prey to the budget axe in the increasingly profit-driven and corporate-dominated newspaper industry. But the tradition of the editorial cartoon is a vital part of American art culture, says Patrick Reardon, and deserves to be recognized as such. “Editorial cartoons are savage snarls. They’re rude and gross, crude and unfair. They ridicule the high and mighty. They slap down the pompous. They sting. They get the blood boiling. And they make their point — with the clarity and nuance of a right uppercut.”