Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year 1991 Paperback – April 30, 1991
by Charles Brooks (Editor)
The year 1990 will be remembered for its earth-shattering events. Worldwide tensions were caused by the Iraqui invasion of Kuwait, the destruction of the Berlin Wall resulted in the unification of the two Germanys, and the revolution in Romania ended with the execution of President Nicolae Ceausescu. Nelson Mandela made a historical visit to the United States after his long overdue release from prison in South Africa. The full realization of the staggering cost of the savings and loans bailout began to sink into the nation's consciousness. NASA's string of problems continued with the failure of the Hubble Space Telescope, and new taxes were put into effect to help curb the rising deficit in the U.S. It was the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, and environmentalists were out in full force, while the war on drugs gained strength and the Constitution was continually challenged by such issues as flag burning and abortion.
Long considered the most definitive collection of editorial cartoons, Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year: 1991 Edition is a must for the politically minded, the history buff, the humorist, and the artist. It includes some 330 cartoons, representing the best works of 150 outstanding cartoonists from the U.S., Canada, and other nations. The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year Series has been an important pictorial review of the year's events. Sometimes brilliantly funny, at other times deeply thought-provoking, the cartoons in this volume capture the mood of 1990. As in the previous years, the 1991 volume includes the year's top award-winning cartoons. ABOUT THE EDITOR Editor Charles Brooks is past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and for thirty-eight years was a cartoonist for the Birmingham News. He has been the recipient of thirteen Freedom Foundation Awards, a national VFW Award, two Vigilante Patriot Awards, and a Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning. Brooks' cartoons appear in more than 80 books, including textbooks on political science, economics, and history, as well as encyclopedias and yearbooks. His original cartoons are on display in many libraries' archives.
About the Author
CHARLES BROOKS, a former president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, has edited this series since its inception in 1972. Brooks served for 38 years as editorial cartoonist for the Birmingham News, where his work won numerous national awards.
Product Details
Series: Best Editorial Cartoons
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Pelican Publishing; 1991 edition (April 30, 1991)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 088289837X
ISBN-13: 978-0882898377
Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
Editorial cartoons on the eve of the first Persian Gulf War
By Lawrance M. Bernabo HALL OF FAMEVINE VOICE on March 27, 2003
Well, the cover of the "Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 1991" is certainly timely. It has Saddam Hussein declaring than his government is digging it to stay and then shows him standing in the grave his men are digging for their nation. This volume offers more than 330 editorial cartoons from the year 1990, which included not only the prelude to the (first) Gulf War but also the political upheavals in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, and the continuing efforts to control the growing budget deficit in the United States that would end up being pivotal in the next Presidential election.
The work of over 170 editorial cartoonists in the United States and Canada are found in this volume edited by Charles Brooks. The continuing circus in Washington, D.C. is a constant source of inspiration, whether you are talking the Bush Administration or the Congress. But the volume begins with the Persian Gulf Conflict, taking jabs at both the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and President Bush's attempt to do something about it. My favorite cartoon is from Jim Borgman of the Cincinnati Enquirer, which shows Saddam with a noose around his neck from a newly planted young tree labeled "Blockade" while Bush, all dressed up in military garb, says, "Now we wait..." It is hard not to look at these cartoons and now be overwhelmed by the irony that a dozen years later history is repeating itself.
Actually, there are more cartoons devoted to the efforts at political reform in the Soviet Union during 1990 as the country's economic deterioration threatened to undermine the "perestroika" of Mikhail Gorbachev. Meanwhile, Boris Yeltsin was elected head of the Russian Republic. Perhaps the greatest irony of looking back at these editorial cartoons is that Saddam Hussein is still in power (as I write this) and Mikhail Gorbachev is a historical footnote.
Other important topics from that year were the appointment of David Souter as Bush's "stealth nominee" to the Supreme Court, the trial of Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry on drug possession, the U.S. Census, the National Endowment of the Arts controversies, Pete Rose being convinced by filing false income tax records, and the deaths of Jim Henson and Ryan White. I always enjoy these works down memory lane because I find editorial cartoons do a better job of crystalizing the issues that defined the time than photographs or articles.
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