THIS MODERN WORLD

Sometime in the mid-eighties I went to a tag sale in the building on the northwest corner of Haight and Ashbury, right behind the famous street signs. The attic turned out to be a time capsule of the Haight, circa early seventies — there were four or five mattresses laying around on the floor, an old wooden console television set, and various other discarded items, including a few record albums. Judging from the dust, no one had even been up there in years — it was clearly an old hippie crash pad that the owner of the building had simply never bothered to clean out. It was an appropriate place to find one of the treasures of my vinyl collection: a Nixon campaign album from 1972, featuring the show-tunes style campaign song, “Nixon is Fixin”.

I was thinking about it the other day, for no apparent reason, and wondered if it had ever been posted online. Maybe it has, but I couldn’t find it after a very extensive ten second Google search, so I decided to digitize it myself. Internet, don’t say I never gave you anything.

I’ll warn you: if you don’t click through, you’ll miss lyrics like these:

For he’s the man to lead our nation
Stop the crime and segregation
and fulfill our expecta–aa–tions…
So go to the polls
Come rain or come shine
For Nixon must have your vote and mine

If you ask real nice, I might post the b-side.

As I’ve discussed before, a big factor in deciding to move TMW to Daily Kos was Markos’ desire to create a new comics section. That wasn’t something that seemed to be in the cards at my former home base, where the cartoonists had slowly been disappearing, like teenagers in a slasher flick. It was important to me to help set a different kind of precedent, which is why I am extremely pleased to announce that Jen Sorensen and Matt Bors will be joining the Kos comics lineup, starting next week. Jen will be running on Wednesdays and Matt on Fridays. As Matt says, “it is significant that a progressive website now has a line up of political cartoonists. I don’t think that has happened since Salon’s original lineup was disbanded.”

One other note: as we launch this new project, there will inevitably be growing pains. Several people have emailed me lately to complain that the Comics section is hard to find. We’re aware of the problem — at present, the design of the front page doesn’t really allow for an obvious way to include a permanent link to the comics. They’re going to be fixing that at some point in the next month or two. In the meantime, there’s a direct link to the comics page at the top of this site, which I urge you to bookmark.

In honor of Newt’s imminent announcement, a cartoon from 1995:

The true story.

(Update: Credo link here.)

As previously noted, just as my last book was published, my publisher was shut down and my editor was let go. Well, to be more accurate, the imprint under which it was published was disbanded in all but name (not to worry about my fabulous editor, though, she landed on her feet with a great new gig). I was concerned that my book would get lost in the shuffle, with no strong advocate at the corporate parent publisher, and unfortunately, that’s pretty much what happened. Anyway, I was on Amazon because I had to buy a couple copies to send to people*, and I noticed some new reviews, a few of which I am highlighting here in hopes of convincing a few more of you to buy the damn thing. You’ll either (a) help keep my sales record from being entirely demolished by the unfortunate sequence of events just described, enabling me to find a new publisher and put out another book, or (b) that won’t happen, and you’ll own a collector’s item, the last published compilation of my cartoons. So for you the consumer, it works out either way!

(Adding, too: this insider baseball stuff aside, it’s a beautifully produced book. I’m a stickler for quality on these things and was not disappointed by this one.)

5.0 out of 5 stars BUY THIS BOOK !! ……..I’m just saying, February 17, 2011
By Richard C. Ferris (Rochester, NY) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Too Much Crazy (Paperback)
If there were justice in this world, the NYT would’ve created a cartoon best seller list long ago. If it existed, Tom Tomorrow’s work would occupy the first five slots with “To Much Crazy” resting on top. However, justice, along with truth and logic remains captive on the far cultural horizon. That why the NYT non fiction best seller list consists primarily of the best fiction publishers can buy.

As John Lennon once said “everything is the opposite of what you believe.” This brings us to Tom Tomorrow’s work captured in the latest collection of “This Modern World “. Although his weekly strips are immensely rewarding, one can only truly appreciate his genius when you have the luxury to absorb a complete collection. In this case, the period covered is 2008-10. The world and national events prove to be a steamy brew for Tom Tomorrow’s comic cauldron. Not since, Al Capp (before he started getting weird in the late sixties) has there been an artist that, through words and images, captures the absurdity of society and the corruption of human nature in such a biting and humorous manner.

“To Much Crazy” continues to demonstrate how diligent Tom Tomorrow is at honing his craft and extracting the priceless value of measured timing and highly defined characters. A quote from John Updike, referring to another cartoonist, can be readily applied to Tom Tomorrow’s work, “it has fire in its belly and a brain in its head “.

If you’ll indulge me, I have no doubt that if Tom Tomorrow’s work had existed, it would have been Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s first choice during his cartoon radio crusade, to read and describe it to the listening public during the 1945 great NYC paper strike. History will always recall the Mayor’s poignant rhetorical question during this disgraceful period, “Why should the people suffer? ” Indeed!

Do yourself a favor, buy this book and start or continue to be a “This Modern World” traveler. For no other reason but to ensure the author maintains his artistic integrity and no long is forced to accept commercial largesse through rock band sponsorship. It’s up to you dear reader, to keep Tom restricted to his studio churning out future work and not forced to subsidize his existence through conscription to extended rock concert tours.

PS: A tip of the cap to Soft Skull Press for a high quality publication.

The best political comicbook ever, February 12, 2011
By Marc Harrison – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Too Much Crazy (Paperback)
What a treat. If you like politics and wry, intelligent comedy, this is it. Tom Tomorrow is the very best in this competitive field. He is always right on the topic, skewering those who need to be corralled and pinned down. The master at exposing the right wing nuts’ evergrowing hypocrisies. Buy the book, enjoy it, and understand what’s really going on here in the good old USA. Lots of clever fun from the artist!

And one from a friend of TMW…

Horrifyingly Hilarious, March 14, 2011
By Barry Eisler (San Francisco) – See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Too Much Crazy (Paperback)
Tom Tomorrow is the most talented political cartoonist in America today. There are so many gems in this collection: “What if Democrats Behaved More Like Republicans…” “Obama the Far-Left Radical…” “Taking Afghanistan Seriously…” one is funnier, and sadder, than the next, as Tomorrow ruthlessly skewers his targets and illuminates how crazy is the new American normal.

Buy it here, or at your friendly neighborhood bookstore, if you have one.

Also, while I’m pitching my stuff, those of you who have children or know someone who does should check out The Very Silly Mayor.

*I can buy copies from the publisher at an author discount, but was under the impression that I had to buy them in bulk. I’m now informed that this is not the case.