This Modern World

This is a weekly politcal cartoon by Tom Tomorrow. It is drawn in a style that has often been compared to clip art. I believe the artist does this in order to further drive his points home when he is satirizing the establishment, although I'm not sure. Every week, this verbose cartoon criticizes something that is happening in current political affairs. Typically, Sparky, the penguin who is really an auk, gets into long winded cynical conversations with Biff, a buffoonish everyman. Generally speaking, the flippant nature of the medium of cartooning allows Tomorrow to tackle many topics in a way that would be difficult for more traditional media. This cartoon is usually funny, and often insightful. It can be seen every week on Salon.

This cartoon's style can also be thought of as mocking the US for still living in the 1950s. All of the characters have that wholesome Donna Reed look to them in an artistic style that is comparable to pop-artist Roy Lichtenstein. Not only do the characters (other than Sparky the Penguin, who is the voice of reason in the comic) look like happy, well-adjusted and completely misinformed Americans circa 1950, but their reactions to current events tend to fall along these lines as well. This style simply adds to the biting sarcasm that is a piece of Tom Tomorrow's arsenal of humor.

Weekly comic strip by San Francisco's Tom Tomorrow. Featured among Salon.com's political cartoons, where it is updated every Monday, and in newspapers like the LA Weekly, OC Weekly, and other Village Voice productions.

About the strip's unique visual look: In the foreword to his 1992 collection, Greetings From This Modern World, Tom Tomorrow explains:

My characters had always been culled from old advertisements (through a collage-and-copy, pen-and-ink process involving no computers, thank you). I appropriated their obscene cheerfulness for my own ends, but for the satire to be effective, they had to stay in character ("Gosh Biff, isn't the President's new policy terrific?")

The bitter, wise-cracking Sparky the Penguin was born as a way for the strip to take an occasional break from its toxic sarcasm and be completely blunt about its points.