EDITOONS: BEST OF 2008

Both of the annual surveys of the “best editorial/political cartoons” of the year 2008 are now out, Editorial from Pelican, edited by Charles Brooks (206 8.5x11-inch pages in paperback; $14.95), and Political from Daryl Cagle, who is joined by Brian Fairrington, who plays the part of the conservative co-editor (286 8x10-inch pages in paperback, $16.99). Both carry “2009 Edition” in their titles — e.g., Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year 2009 Edition.

I haven’t anything new to add to what I’ve said about these books in previous years. They’re both pretty much the same as they’ve always been. More cartoons in Cagle, but they’re reproduced too small; larger cartoons in Brooks, but many (although not all) are by second tier talent, scarcely the “best” of any year, however noble the perpetrators’ aspirations. Cagle’s choices follow the often trivial preoccupations of cartoonists who get their news from tabloid tv, but there are so many cartoons herein that the big issues are present, if not quite as emphasized as in Brooks. But if you want an overview of the year, you oughta get a copy of each. Cagle this year has restored a section missing from the last couple editions, a portfolio of cartoons submitted to the Pulitzer competition by the most recent winner. Probably in the years this section is missing, the cartoonist wouldn’t give Cagle permission to exhibit his cartoons. Last year’s winner, however, Michael Ramirez, a staunch conservative, has no such reservations: his submission portfolio is here entire.

Ramirez also has a book of his own, just out, Everyone Has The Right to My Opinion (282 8.5x11-inch pages, some in color; hardcover, $34.95). This is Ramirez’s first compilation of cartoons, and some of them come from his earliest stint at the Commercial Appeal in Memphis; most, however, are from the last few years, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at the Investor’s Business Daily, where he is a senior editor as well as the staff editoonist. His winning 2008 Pulitzer portfolio is here, and this volume displays it to much greater advantage because the cartoons are all in color. Moreover, the cartoons appear throughout one-to-a-page, a generous display that Ramirez deserves: his cartoons are copiously detailed, and he seems to like drawing huge pieces of equipment, festooning them with gadgets and gizmos — much of which would be lost at a smaller dimension (as it is in Cagle, for instance).

A newcomer to these annual “best of the year” fetes is another volume from Pelican, Prizewinning Political Cartoons 2008 Edition (128 8.5x11-inch pages, some in color; paperback, $15.95). Edited by Dean P. Turnbloom, a former Navy man who’s loved cartooning all his life but didn’t seek publication until he retired from the fleet, the book features the prize winners and their work in many of the editooning competitions: Pulitzer Prize, National Headliner Award, Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award, Overseas Press Club’s Thomas Nast Award, Scripps Howard National Journalillsm Award, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition Award, National Press Foundation’s Clifford K. And James T. Berryman Award, the Herblock Prize, and the Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Award.

This volume, the 2008 Edition, contains the winners in the 2007 contests and many of the runners-up — Nick Anderson, Clay Bennett, Steven Benson, Matt Davies, Walt Handelsman, Mike Keefe, Mike Lester, Mike Luckovich, Jim Morin, David Pope, Jean Planteureux, Alfredo Sabat, Steve Sack, Mike Thompson, Signe Wilkinson, and Adam Zyglis. It also features short biographies of all the winners, and this, from Joseph Pulitzer, writing about the Prize he endowed: “Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.” And to foster their professional spirit and dedication, Pulitzer created the awards bearing his name. I’ve quoted Pulitzer at length for the sake of the inherent irony: read it again and think about tabloid tv journalism, the pace-setter for all news media in this hapless land.