December 18, 2005

Herblock's History Political cartoons from the Crash to the Millenium. An online tribute, courtesy the Library of Congress.

In his first daily cartoon, published six months before the 1929 New York Stock Exchange crash that plunged the country into the Great Depression, Herb Block deplored the clear-cutting of America's virgin forests and foreshadowed the economic wasteland to come in the next decade.

posted by dt118 18 years ago
  • Wow. What a career.
  • awesome. How did you happen across this?
  • via Khoi Vinh's website. But don't tell anybody.
  • Great stuff.
  • One thing that interests me about editorial cartoons of previous times is their use of "labelled" symbolism - e.g. the candle being labelled "german civilization" here. It's a trick that modern editorial cartoons don't do so much - or so it seems to me. Do we now think it's terribly gauche to label your symbols? Do we just think it's a cheap gag - e.g. the cowboys here could represent any conflicting issues, couldn't they? When did this practice cease - if indeed it has?
  • That's a really good question, Quid. I remember when we had to draw politiacl cartoons in high school (this was the late 80's) we were discouraged from using labels.
  • Yeah, I wonder when the practice died out. There's probably a Masters thesis on this point currently growing mould somewhere ...
  • I'm glad to see this link. Herblock was an excellent artist and a lovely guy. Most of what I know about history, I learned from reading his compilations.
  • > Do we now think it's terribly gauche to label your symbols? i've wondered about this question. my impression is either we consider it patronising to the reader/viewer to label the cartoon, or we assume that the cartoon(ist) should be able to represent the statement pictorially or not at all. some current cartoonists frequently use labels (e.g. cox and forkum here: http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/000687.html - perhaps an example of excessive labelling). in the c&f case, i think the labels compensate for talent make it possible to cram a dogmatic screed into one to three panels. i find labelling very useful in old cartoons, as the visual metaphors aren't always accessible.