Free Political Cartoons

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS PRESENTATION AT OLD STATE CAPITOL MAY 28

Men portraying political rivals and friends Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas will present a special program Saturday, May 28 at 3 p.m. in the Hall of Representatives at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site in downtown Springfield. The program is free and open to the public.

Tim Connors will portray Stephen A. Douglas and George Buss will portray Abraham Lincoln near the 150th anniversary of Douglas’ June 3, 1861 death. Douglas, one of three candidates Lincoln defeated in the 1860 Presidential election, became a staunch Lincoln supporter and a vocal proponent of saving the Union as the Civil War approached. Douglas returned to Springfield, where he had held several political offices, shortly before his death as part of his “Save the Union” campaign. Buss and Connors, both from Freeport, portrayed Lincoln and Douglas on the statewide tour commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 2008.

The May 28 presentation coincides with the special exhibit "The Shadow of a Giant: Stephen A. Douglas” currently on display at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site and the Lincoln Home National Historic Site Visitor Center. The exhibit runs through August 6 and features 30 original documents that span Douglas’ long and varied political career; two oil portraits of Douglas; campaign prints and political cartoons; and a very rare plaster bust of Douglas from the 1860 Presidential Campaign.

Stephen A. Douglas was very familiar with the Illinois Statehouse, now known as the Old State Capitol State Historic Site. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives, as Illinois Secretary of State and as an Associate Justice on the Illinois Supreme Court. These offices and his regular presence at the Statehouse put him in frequent contact with another person who was no stranger to its halls - his political rival and later friend, Abraham Lincoln.

Stephen Douglas died at his home in Chicago shortly after his 1861 return to Illinois on June 3.

The Old State Capitol State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, was the seat of Illinois government from 1839 to 1876, and is open for free public tours. The Lincoln Home National Historic Site, a part of the National Park Service, preserves the home the Lincoln family lived in from 1844 – 1861 before leaving for Washington. The Visitor Center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Review: Prizewinning Political Cartoons: 2011 Edition - Cartoon ...

While both of those collections are thick and deliver a good dollar-to-cartoon ratio, they suffer from cluttered layout and redundant, sub-par material. Cagle's collection is grouped by major news stories of the year, which often means numerous cartoons on the death of a celebrity or one who has has yet to die but has committed some other act deemed worthy of our attention, such as dating other humans or being a complete train wreck. This leaves cartoonists who hover beneath the blare of the media megaphone, churning out work on under-the-radar topics like torture and women's rights, largely ignored. For The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year (Pelican, again) edited by Dean Turnbloom, an annual collection published since 2008, ducks the question of who is the best by simply printing who is the most prizewinningest. And the collection is just that: prizewinners from U.S. competitions, from the RFK Journalism Award to the Pulitzers, presented in a slim volume of 109 pages but with comics printed in color and given the space earned by such prize-worthy work. But right out of the gate, new problems present themselves. Mark Fiore, who snagged the 2010 Pulitzer for his brilliant animations and writes the foreword for this collection, is represented by screen shots of his work, without captions or context. After that awkwardness is flipped past, you are dealt a selection of largely well-regarded big names that seem to rotate in the prizewinning circle: Steve Breen, Matt Wuerker, Mike Keefe, Tony Auth, Nate Beeler. Wuerker's watercolors stand out as does the black line work of Auth, printed here larger than any space-strapped rag would dare.

The work of prizewiners Mike Peters and Jack Ohman are absent, with pages noting their wins and a simple line stating they were "unavailable for this edition." It's a shame that Ohman's work in particular wasn't included. His large, quarter-page strips for the Sunday Oregonian as full page comics. Artists expanding beyond the single panel gag into more narrative work is a good development for the field and this collection – it's in displaying this work that a book can justify itself and its shelf life.