I don't know why I like political cartoons: they're barely politics, they're barely art, and the people who make them barely get paid. In an age when I don't know why I like political cartoons: they're barely politics, they're barely art, and the people who make them barely get paid. In an age when Michael "DEBT" Ramirez has two Pulitzers and Glenn and Gary McCoy are still syndicated, it might be best to entomb the whole medium with Thomas Nash and Paul Conrad and call it 'done'.*
The Nib is a brave effort by cartoonist Matt Bors to bring the medium into the 21st century, with the hope that the right image in the right time can go viral, can say what people can't say on their own, and make a difference. Like the cover says, this volume is a record of the best of the Nib's first year and a bit, with a talented list of artists you can google on your own. The topics are a smorgasbord that is very very 2014. Dumb internet jokes about the sad states of millennials, long confessional graphic essays about miscarriage, rape, and depression, stabs against the injustices of shootings in Ferguson and at Charlie Hebdo.
Personally, I would have cut some of the longer and less artistically interesting essays (lots of literal talking heads) in favor of more sharp or symbolic pieces, or even essays on what the hell 2014 was, but this is a solid collection of young and diverse artistic talents. That's why I'm dinging it a star compared to my much treasured books by Tim Kreider. But if you like paper books and political cartoons, there's nothing better that's to celebrate the present state of the field.
*the fact that I know all these names is a sign of a deep problem. If you recognize these names too, seek help. ...more
This collection covers the latter half of 2005-2009, with classic cartoons like "Jesus vs JEEZUS" and "Civil War II." Kreider is as acerbic and irreveThis collection covers the latter half of 2005-2009, with classic cartoons like "Jesus vs JEEZUS" and "Civil War II." Kreider is as acerbic and irreverent as always, wielding his pen in both cartoons and essays that chronicle the slow implosion of the Bush administration, the Left's affair with Candidate Obama, and the controversy over a Danish cartoonist's picture of Mohammed.
But the real treasure here is the closing essay, where Kreider reflects on how angry he was during the Bush administration, how shrill and irritating his political persona was, but how it was necessary to counter the endless parade of propaganda and baldfaced lies marching from the White House in the service of evil and incompetent policies. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of the gang were low-grade profiteering thugs who looted the American dream and wrecked at least two foreign nations, and that they've escaped any punishment for their crimes will be one of the enduring shames of our times.* Kreider saw himself as the body politic's liver, and like the liver he absorbed a lot of toxins and took a lot of abuse. But because he (and the rest of the commentators on the Left) were paid a pittance, he could put it down and avoid becoming another Rush Limbaugh.
Kreider's political journey through the Bush administration paralleled my own, and while I miss his artistic/political voice today, I'm forever grateful to him for speaking truth to power in dark times, and letting me reminisce with him.
*and yes, President Obama is only slightly better. ...more
I'll confess I'm nostalgic for the bad old days of the Bush Era, when we plunged into a senseless war in the Middle East on flimsy pretexts, when the I'll confess I'm nostalgic for the bad old days of the Bush Era, when we plunged into a senseless war in the Middle East on flimsy pretexts, when the constitution and civil liberties were trampled in the name of security, theocratic thugs and business suited crooked ravaged the country, and above all *I* could hate the moronic man-child that called himself the President.
Well, Kreider hits that nostalgia just right. As a person he lays it into Bush relentlessly, flaying open the hypocrisy and fear of that sad era. As an artist, he is a treasure-Hunter S Thompson and Ralph Steadman in one. Every line of his frantically inked cartoons is dripping with style and venom, and this book has over 100 with accompanying short essays explaining his creative process (booze, bitches, late night phone calls, Vicodin) and current events. The only problem with Kreider is that he retired in 2009, although I'm sure that like Jesus, he is just waiting for when we need him....more
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