Those Gone Before

I don't mean to be heretical, because Paul Conrad was, in fact, an excellent cartoonist. But browsing through the work of long-time Los Angeles Times editorial cartoonist is a reminder of what a tragedy it is that Herbert Block didn't live to capture the second Bush administration. Take a look at the tenth cartoon in this Nixon gallery, for example. It's got all the basic elements of a Nixon cartoon: the v-for-victory arm extensions (which this sample of Conrad's work somewhat overuses), the incriminating material in his hands. But it's nowhere near as compelling as Herblock's famous "I Am Not A Crook" cartoon, which depicts the president as not only the architect of a false identity, but as a scrambling, struggling little man. But in a sense, comparisons between them, or wishes that Block had been around longer, are meaningless. We're unlikely to see the like of either man again, unless something in the market for editorial cartooning changes rather dramatically.