Tom Tomorrow

"Dan Perkins" redirects here. For the baseball player, see Dan Perkins (baseball). For the comic-book character, see Tommy Tomorrow.
Tom Tomorrow
Born Dan Perkins
(1961-04-05) April 5, 1961
Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
Nationality American
Area(s) cartoonist
Notable works
 This Modern World
Awards full list

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 90 newspapers across the United States and Canada as of 2006,[1] as well as on CREDO Action[2] and Daily Kos, where he is its comics curator.[3] His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Spin, Mother Jones, Esquire, The Economist, and The American Prospect.[4][5]

Career

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.[6]

In 1999, Perkins had an animation deal with Saturday Night Live and produced three animated spots that were never aired.[5] 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.[7] Perkins has also collaborated with Michael Moore, according to a 2005 interview with Santa Cruz Metro, in which he stated, "(T)his never got to actual animation, but I did work on a script with Michael Moore for a year. It was right after Bowling for Columbine, and there was this French guy who wanted to give him the money to do another documentary. But Michael wanted to do this animated piece that we were working on. It was kind of set in the moment, right after 9/11 and as we were gearing up for the war in Iraq. If you read my cartoons about the small cute dog in the parallel universe who accidentally becomes president—it was basically a movie about the small cute dog, except that he gets lost and ends up in this war zone. And a character who bore an uncanny temperamental resemblance to Bill O'Reilly was sort of the central character. And lots of zany things happened."[8]

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.[9]

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,[10] prompting his friend Eddie Vedder to post an open letter on the Pearl Jam website in support of the cartoonist.[11] The band enlisted him to make art for their 2009 album Backspacer.[12]

This Modern World

Main article: This Modern World

This Modern World debuted in 1990 in SF Weekly. 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:

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.

Books

There have been several cartoon anthologies of This Modern World published:

The anthologies were published by St. Martin's Press until Hell in a Handbasket, when Perkins switched to Tarcher. The Future's So Bright I Can't Bear to Look was published by Nation Books. Too Much Crazy was published by Soft Skull Press. The World of Tomorrow was published by TopatoCo and is exclusively available at their website. The publication of 25 Years of Tomorrow was aided by a highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015.

The Very Silly Mayor, a picture book for children aged 4–8, was published in September 2009 by Ig Publishing.[13]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Phillips, Peter; Project Censored (2006). Censored 2007. Seven Stories Press. p. 16. ISBN 1-58322-738-5. Retrieved 2009-03-05. 'This Modern World' appears in more than ninety newspapers across the country.
  2. ↑ "CREDO Action - Comics". Working Assets. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  3. ↑ Cavna, Michael (March 30, 2011). "Rebel With A 'KOS': Tom Tomorrow ends Salon run to become 'comics curator' at the Daily Kos". The Washington Post.
  4. 1 2 "Tom Tomorrow". Spitfire Tour. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  5. 1 2 "Tom Tomorrow (the Progressive Interview)". The Progressive. Retrieved 2005-11-02.
  6. ↑ "No Mort Tomorrows". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  7. ↑ "Let's Get Animated". Online Journalism Review. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  8. ↑ "Here Today, Tom Tomorrow". Santa Cruz Metro. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  9. ↑ "Runnin' Scared". Village Voice. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  10. ↑ "Oy". thismodernworld blog. Archived from the original on April 13, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  11. ↑ "This Modern World Needs Your Help". Pearl Jam website. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  12. ↑ Tom Tomorrow (2009-06-02). "Now it can be (partly) told". Tom Tomorrow. Archived from the original on June 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  13. ↑ "The Very Silly Mayor". Retrieved 2009-05-01.
  14. 1 2 "30th Annual Awards - 1998 (for 1997 coverage)". Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  15. 1 2 "35th Annual Awards - 2003 (for 2002 coverage)". Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  16. ↑ "Paley, Perkins leave Examiner for weeklies". Mediafile. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  17. ↑ "Freedom of Information Award Winners". Society of Professional Journalists. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  18. ↑ "Tom Tomorrow wins PF&R Award" (PDF). Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  19. ↑ "James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism Recipients". James Aronson Award. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
  20. 1 2 "Tom Tomorrow". Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  21. ↑ "Dan Perkins, aka Tom Tomorrow, announced 2013 Herblock Prize Winner". The Herb Block Foundation. February 26, 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-26.

Further reading

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