Tom Tomorrow

Tom Tomorrow is the pen name of editorial cartoonist Dan Perkins. His weekly comic strip This Modern World, which comments on current events, appears regularly in over 80 newspapers across the United States and Canada as of 2015,^[1] as well as on CREDO Action^[2] and Daily Kos, where he was the former comics curator^[3] and now is a regular contributor.^[4] His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Spin, Mother Jones, Esquire, The Economist, and The American Prospect.^[5][6]

Career

Perkins was first published in a magazine called Processed World. Taking as subject matter, consumer culture and the drudgery of work, a theme shared by the magazine, This Modern World was launched. In 1990, the strip began to be run in the SF Weekly before being picked up in the fall of 1991 by the Examiner. During this time of expanding audiences for Perkin's, he shifted the focus of his work to politics. Perkins added papers throughout the nineties, distributing his comic via self-syndication, a practice he's continued throughout his career.^[7]

In 1998, Perkins was asked by editor James Fallows to contribute a bi-weekly cartoon to U.S. News and World Report, but was fired less than six months later, reportedly at the direction of owner Mort Zuckerman.^[8]

In 1999, Perkins had an animation deal with Saturday Night Live and produced three animated spots that were never aired.^[6] In 2000 and 2001, his online animated series was the top-billed attraction in Mondo Media's lineup of mini-shows, in which the voice of Sparky the Penguin was provided by author and Jeopardy! champion Bob Harris.^[9] Perkins has also collaborated with Michael Moore, according to a 2005 interview with Santa Cruz Metro. ^[10]

In December, 2007, Keith Olbermann devoted the closing segment of an episode of his show to a reading of "Bill O'Reilly's Very Useful Advice for Young People," a two-page cartoon/cover story by Perkins for the Village Voice.^[11]

In 2009, Village Voice Media, publishers of 16 alternative weeklies, suspended all syndicated cartoons across their entire chain. Perkins lost twelve client papers in cities including Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, and Seattle,^[12] prompting his friend Eddie Vedder to post an open letter on the Pearl Jam website in support of the cartoonist.^[13] Vedder and Perkins had become friends after meeting at a campaign rally for Ralph Nader in 2000.^[14] The collaboration between Pearl Jam and Perkins continued with an invite to submit cover art for the Backspacer album in 2009.^[15] After being selected to provide the cover art for Backspacer, Perkins went on to create a series of Halloween-themed posters for the concerts supporting the album.^[16]

In 2015, Perkins was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize^[17] and later in the year ran a newsmaking Kickstarter campaign that raised over $300,000 to publish a career retrospective, 25 Years of Tomorrow.^[1]

This Modern World

This Modern World is Perkin's ongoing comic strip that has been continually published for over 25 years. While it often ridicules those in power, the strip also focuses on the average American's support for contemporary leaders and their policies, as well as the popular media's role in shaping public perception.

In addition to any politicians and celebrities depicted, the strip has several recurring characters:

• A sunglasses-wearing penguin named "Sparky" and his Boston terrier friend, "Blinky"
• "Biff," a generic conservative often used by Sparky as a foil
• "Conservative Jones," a boy detective whose deductive reasoning satirizes the logic of conservative news analysts and politicians
• The tentacle-waving aliens of planet Glox
• The "Small Cute Dog," who was accidentally elected president on "parallel earth," and whose subsequent actions mirrored those of President George W. Bush.
• The "Invisible Hand of the Free Market Man", a superhero figure whose head is shaped like human hand.

He began his blog, also called This Modern World, in September 2001.

Personal life

Perkins, a longtime resident of both San Francisco, California, and Brooklyn, New York, currently lives in New Haven.

Works and publications

Anthologies of This Modern World

• Tomorrow, Tom; Griffith, Bill (Introduction by) (1992). Greetings from This Modern World. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-08203-1. OCLC 903699001. 
• Tomorrow, Tom (1994). Tune in Tomorrow. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-11344-5. OCLC 30594550. 
• Tomorrow, Tom (1996). The Wrath of Sparky. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-13753-3. OCLC 34356174. 
• Tomorrow, Tom; Hitchens, Christopher (Forward by) (1998). Penguin Soup for the Soul. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-19316-4. OCLC 39339312. 
• Tomorrow, Tom; Eggers, Dave (Introduction by) (2000). When Penguins Attack!. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-20974-2. OCLC 44132892. 
• Tomorrow, Tom (2003). The great big book of Tomorrow : a treasury of cartoons. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-30177-4. OCLC 52086366.  – a large omnibus of early work and selected strips
• Tomorrow, Tom (2006). Hell in a Handbasket: Dispatches from the Country Formerly Known As America. New York: J.P. Tarcher/Penguin. ISBN 978-1-585-42458-0. OCLC 61229839. 
• Tomorrow, Tom (2008). The Future so Bright: I Can't Bear to Look. New York: Nation Books. ISBN 978-1-568-58402-7. OCLC 608483309. 
• Tomorrow, Tom; Moore, Michael (Forward by) (2011). Too Much Crazy. New York: Soft Skull Press. ISBN 978-1-593-76410-4. OCLC 658117509. 
• Tomorrow, Tom; Vedder, Eddie (Forward by) (2012). The World of Tomorrow. Easthampton, MA: Topataco. ISBN 978-1-936-56173-5. OCLC 903701151. 
• Tomorrow, Tom (2016). 25 Years of Tomorrow. Easthampton, MA: Tomorrowco Industries. ISBN 978-1-936-56133-9. OCLC 926736906.  – includes pre-Modern World material
• Tomorrow, Tom (2016). Crazy Is the New Normal. San Diego, CA: IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1-631-40700-0. OCLC 948562092. 

Childrens picture book

• Tomorrow, Tom (2009). The Very Silly Mayor. Brooklyn, NY: Ig Pub. ISBN 978-1-935-43901-1. OCLC 313077654. ^[18] – a picture book for children aged 4–8

Awards

• Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1998 and 2003.^[19][20]
• 1993: Media Alliance Meritorious Achievement Award (MAMA)^[5][21]
• 1995: Society of Professional Journalists James Madison Freedom of Information Award^[22]
• 1998: Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Cartoon, for This Modern World^[19]
• 2000: Association for Education in Journalism and Education, Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award^[23]
• 2001: James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism^[24]
• 2003: Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Cartoon, for This Modern World^[20]
• 2004: AltWeekly Award, Cartoon (More than five papers), 2nd Place, for This Modern World^[25]
• 2006: AltWeekly Award, Cartoon (Four or more papers), 3rd Place, for This Modern World^[25]
• 2013: Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning^[26]

References

Further reading

• Rall, Ted (2002). Attitude: The New Subversive Political Cartoonists. NBM. pp. 28–33. ISBN 1-56163-317-8. 

External links

• This Modern World
• Tom Tomorrow on Twitter
  
• Article on the development and early years of the strip
• Buzzflash Interview: Tom Tomorrow, Author of "This Modern World"
• Beyond Chron Profile: Tom Tomorrow
• Tom Tomorrow's Hell in a Handbasket by Glenn Greenwald
• Debunking Thomas Friedman's "I lost my job to India and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" story.
• open letter from Eddie Vedder