Tagged as: paul conrad

One cannot understate the influence Wiley Miller has had on newspaper comics and in ways far beyond artistic style.

It’s hard to find an article or review of Bob Staake that doesn’t include a line about Bob being “one of the most prolific illustrators” of his generation. Which isn’t exactly true. He’s also a cartoonist, children’s book writer and artist, political and commercial artist. In his 50 year career he’s worked with just about […]

Well, perhaps.It’s clearly a good thing that we defeated the Nazis and thwarted Japan’s imperialism, and the famous raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi is an iconic image of how America rallied in that time of crisis.However, we shouldn’t forget that, while we rallied on the battlefield, we had also rallied on the home […]

Matt Wuerker sings of arms and the man with a Veterans Day cartoon. There aren’t as many “Little boys saluting tombstones” cartoons as usual, which is good, but, then, there aren’t as many cartoons marking the holiday at all, which is puzzling and, IMHO, not good. Most of the veterans who get the day off […]

Seems like a good jibe at the expense of our exalted Secretary of Health and Human Services, doesn’t it? But Garry Trudeau was early, because I came across this last week when I was looking through the 2006 archives for flag desecration cartoons. It ran July 2, 2006, which was not only well before RFK […]

It’s a pleasant fantasy, to imagine each bizarre, disturbing development coming along in a separate day. If it did, we could brace for it as Katauskas suggests. But, of course, that’s not how a firehose works, though the unbearable daily terror she posits would be an improvement on the flood that actually occurs.As it is, […]

Despair was on the national menu in October, 1973. Paul Conrad described the state of the presidency in the words White House Counsel John Ehrlichman had used when, as Watergate investigations began, he said that, rather than confirming Patrick Gray as head of the FBI, they should leave him “slowly, slowly twisting in the wind.”By […]

“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” — Stephen DedalusAs Doonesbury concluded back in 1971, putting Kent State into the memory hole allowed us to “concentrate on fresher, more recent, tragedies.”But as Senators Hawley and Cotton call for the National Guard to be sent to quell campus protests, it’s worth remembering […]

Juxtaposition of Ancient FadsPaul ConradCornered — AMSPaul Berge has a collection of cartoons from a half-century ago about streaking, which was one of those fads that becomes a fad because it became a fad. Which is to say that it got a lot more attention than it deserved, but it appealed to people who like […]

Henry Kissinger died last evening, too late in the day for American cartoonists to do more than replay some of their previous commentaries on the man. Steve Brodner‘s cover for Nation was only a few months ago, on Kissinger’s 100th birthday, and his dripping blood frosting offers a Reader’s Digest guide to the doctor’s accomplishments, […]

This Doonesbury ran on May 30, 1973, not July 4, but it’s an important intro to the political cartoons that ran a half century ago today, because, like most historical moments, Watergate is shrouded in half-remembered stories and outright myths. Trudeau may have been a little pessimistic about how much people were paying attention at […]

My blogging partner, DD Degg, forwarded an article from the Spectator on war and cartooning, in which the above WWII David Low cartoon is referenced though not shown.The article is a quick read and nicely done, but doesn’t show any of the cartoons it discusses. Which is why you should read it there and then […]

It used to be a tradition this time of year to break the fourth wall and wish readers a Merry Christmas, these being some examples by classic strips back in 1925. I didn’t see many examples today, though it may be that, come next Friday, more cartoonists will do that. It’s a clumsy situation to have […]

Among the Giants of Editorial Cartooning in the last half of the 20th Century and into the 21st was Paul Conrad of The Los Angeles Times. While Pat Oliphant, another giant of the times, would ridicule his subjects Paul would pound them. Conrad seldom went for a laugh, his cartoons brought the realization, and anger, […]

Happy New Year, 1915, from this little feller.  Since New Year’s cartoons are interchangeable, I thought instead I’d dip into my files of favorites from before I launched this venture nine years ago. So let’s start with my first posting in rec.arts.comics.strips, nearly 20 years ago, which didn’t keep my numbskull boss from selling off the […]