Overview
More than 360 eye-catching cartoons from the pens of 130 of the leading political cartoonists from the United States, Canada, and Latin America make this volume a concise pictorial history of the year's events.Focusing upon the 24 major news stories of 1978, this volume, the seventh in an annual series, presents virtually every political point of view -- liberal, conservative, middle-of-the-road, and fringe positions as well.
Included among the topics in this volume are the successes and travails of the Carter Administration, the burgeoning taxpayers' revolt, the Camp David negotiations, America's growing economic problems, the history-making test tube baby, and the selection of a new pope.
As in the previous editions, this volume was edited by Charles Brooks, past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) and cartoonist for the Birmingham, Alabama News for three decades.
Also featured is an illuminating foreword on the art of the political cartoon by Jerry Robinson, whose cartoons are syndicated nationwide. Robinson, currently president of the AAEC, began his career as an illustrator for Batman Comics and was responsible for creating "The Joker," the first super-villain of comics.
As Robinson emphasizes, the political cartoonist is at once an artist, social critic, and political analyst. It is his task to expose pomposity, illusions, social pretensions, and sacred cows. As the examples herein prove, these cartoonists have upheld the high standard of the craft.
Also reproduced in this volume are the cartoons that captured the year's top awards for editorial cartooning, along with lists of past winners of each.