The Great Big Book of Tomorrow: A Treasury of Cartoons

by Tom Tomorrow

For over fifteen years, Tom Tomorrow has been providing his uniquely acerbic, witty, and altogether clearheaded view of media, politics, and overall society in his syndicated cartoon. With an ever increasing fan base, an expanding number of publications who regularly feature his work, one of the most popular and most visited web-logs (www.thismodernworld.com), the time is now for The Great Big Book of Tomorrow . This massive collection of Tomorrow's greatest hits, unseen gems and obscurities, new material and color section is the so far definitive collection of one of the most popular 'underground' cartoonists ever--a delight to long-time fans and new readers alike.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Politics, Graphic Novels, Cartoon, Comic Strips

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2003

About the author

Tom Tomorrow is the pen name of editorial cartoonist Dan Perkins, creator of the weekly political cartoon, This Modern World, which appears in approximately 80 newspapers across the U.S., and on websites such as Daily Kos, Truthout and Credo. His work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Spin, Mother Jones, Esquire, The Economist, The Nation, U.S. News and World Report, and The American Prospect, and has been featured on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

From 1999-2001, he worked on a series of animated web cartoons which can be viewed here.

In 2009, he created the cover art for the Pearl Jam album Backspacer.

In 2011 he ended a 16 year run at Salon to create and edit a new comics section at Daily Kos.

He has published nine anthologies of his work:

–Greetings From This Modern World (1992)
–Tune in Tomorrow (1994)
–The Wrath of Sparky (1996)
–Penguin Soup for the Soul (1998)
–When Penguins Attack (2000) (introduction by Dave Eggers)
–The Great Big Book of Tomorrow (2003)
–Hell in a Handbasket (2006)
–The Future’s So Bright I Can’t Bear to Look (2008)
Too Much Crazy (2010)

He is also the author of a book for children, The Very Silly Mayor (2009).

He received the first place Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1998 and in 2003. Other honors include:

1993: Media Alliance Meritorious Achievement Award
1995: Society of Professional Journalists James Madison Freedom of Information Award
2000: Association for Education in Journalism and Education, Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award
2001: James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism
2004: Altweekly Award, 2nd Place
2006: Altweekly Award, 3rd Place

Tom Tomorrow is available for speaking engagements. For further information, contact tomtomorrow (at) gmail (dot) com. He is also currently in the market for a new publisher, if anyone’s interested.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating glimpse into the modern world of 1990s America, as seen through the cartoons of Tom Tomorrow. It also illustrates how little has actually changed in the past 30 years. Many of the cartoons are just as relevant today as when they were first written, decades ago!

[Djll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I could've made it through the Bush II Administration without Tom Tomorrow to remind me to laugh at it at least once a week.

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomorrow is probably too caustic (and arguably polemical) to be laugh-out-loud funny very often, but many of the strips here are indeed quite funny, and most have quite a punch to them. Tomorrow or more hard of Republicans than Democrats (at least herein), but Clinton and his administration take some pretty serious skewering. There's actually relatively little about the Monica Lewinsky scandal, though in a selection like this, it's hard to know whether that's because Tomorrow just didn't do that many strips about it at the time, or chose to reprint only a selection of them. Regardless, the effect is fine, given that the whole thing was blown out of proportion anyway(um, no pun intended). Most amusing, perhaps, is Tomorrow's early depiction of Clinton as a waffle--months before Trudeau chose that depiction for use in Doonesbury; he even comments on Trudeau's move in that direction. Clinton gets nailed not only as a waffler but basically as a Republican-lite. Tomorrow doesn't think in terms of Republicans and Democrats as right and left so much as right and slightly less right--so, more like, say, Canadians tend to perceive the differences. Tomorrow's art makes heavy use of clipped and repeated images, which works well to keep his cartoon landscape stark and simple--in some respects; certainly, he gets into some complex issues in what are often only four- or six-panel strips. Good stuff, if one has a stomach for overtly political cartooning with relatively little interest in being visually appealing or smooth but considerable interest in being caustically satirical.

[Nathan Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

A catalog of exceptional political humor that never takes the easy way out. Dan Perkins aka Tom Tomorrow’s early, largely non-topical work is so funny it almost makes you wish he worked with more subjects. No matter, though, because we need people like Perkins. Highlights are too numerous to mention and you can see the majority of them on the website, but buy the book anyway because it’s a hell of a deal and you’ll laff and cry.

[Bryan]

Hard-Hitting Political Commentary: I am a HUGE fan of Tom Tomorrow's strips, which are, in my opinion, some of the finest examples of tight political commentary out there.

Tomorrow definitely sticks it to the right-wingers, but it's unfair to say that he is completely skewed to one side of the political spectrum, because he sometimes has less than complimentary commentary on Democrats as well.

There are lots of really good political cartoons out there, but I have never seen a cartoonist who not only can accurately portray the right-wing extremists out there but skewer them so completely.

This book contains a compendium of Tom Tomorrow's cartoons that take us through the Bush I years, the rather turbulent Clinton years, and modern Bush II times. The cartoons are funny, hard-hitting, and well written.

This book will be a treasured possession of anyone who enjoys political cartoons.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an amazing snapshot into national (US) electoral politics over the past 20 years or so. Many of the insights and takeaways are very timely, especially in this election year. Thank you Tom Tomorrow.