Foundation News

The Herblock Award for Editorial Cartoon: Underwritten by The Herb Block Foundation, the Editorial Cartoon category and Herblock Award celebrate the legacy of four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Herb Block and his remarkable contribution to American history and free expression. The three teen artists receive $2,000 scholarships for their outstanding drawings, illustrations, or animations offering commentary on current events or political topics, and their educators receive $500. This year’s recipients are:

In 1966, Herbert "Herblock" Block designed a stamp about the US Bill of Rights, which was issued on July 1, 1966. Recently I was shown the following article on his process for designing it. 

On the Record: Bill of Rights; 5-cent commemorative issued July 1, 1966 at Miami Beach, Fla. [aka Herblock Designs a Stamp].

Belmont Faries

S.P.A. Journal 30 (3; November 1967); cover, 163-170

It's worth quoting part of the article now.

Barry Blitt, Jack Ohman, and Jen Sorensen discuss the promise and many perils of their chosen artform.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Washington Post has resigned after its editorial page editor rejected a cartoon she created to mock media and tech titans abasing themselves before President-elect Donald Trump.

The cartoon, by Ann Telnaes, depicted the owner of The Post, Jeff Bezos, and other billionaires genuflecting toward a statue of President-elect Donald Trump.

Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for The Washington Post, said on Friday evening that she was resigning after the newspaper’s opinions section rejected a cartoon depicting The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, genuflecting toward a statue of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

Cartoonists reflect on satirizing the former president and celebrating his humanitarian work.

......“Herblock and many other editorial cartoonists characterized Carter as an honest but ineffective leader during his presidency,” said Sara Duke, curator of graphic art in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. “As he started to run for reelection in 1979 and 1980, many cartoonists placed in him in the shadow of Sen. Ted Kennedy.”

Through February 23, 2025

Now on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education

Politically independent and a champion of the little guy, Herbert L. Block (1909–2001)—better known as “Herblock”—spared no one from the wrath of his art. His pointed commentaries offer an opportunity to reflect on history and culture. How much has changed and what remains the same?

While the physical Herblock Gallery is closed, we’re offering ten new cartoons online every six months to highlight topics that filled the news 50 years ago.  We also have display cases with original drawings by Herblock to visit in person on the Jefferson Building mezzanine.

Political cartoonists discussed the 2024 election and global affairs at an event hosted by the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism, and Citizenship (IDJC) in Washington, D.C. Topics included surprises in the 2024 election, how satire is perceived as news, and cartooning during times of war. 

Editorial Cartoonists: Matt Wuerker, Ann Telnaes, Michael Ramirez, Pedro Molina, Vladimir Kazanevsky, and Rachita Taneja. 

Brodner, a frequent contributor to The Nation, is both a great caricaturist and a great portraitist.

Matt Bors was a creatively hungry 29-year-old cartoonist with energy to burn and a vision to fill a journalistic void. The popularity of nonfiction comics and graphic novels was soaring in 2013, yet many news outlets were cutting back on their topical cartoons.

Now that Steven Breen is out at the Union-Tribune as its long-time editorial cartoonist, the local daily — recently purchased by a hedge fund — is in dire need of a local artist with the gravitas of taking on issues in a comic way.

So, stand aside!

The OB Rag hereby recommends local boy, Lalo Alvaraz — artist of the award-winning “La Cucaracha” daily cartoon series — for the U-T’s new editorial cartoonist!

Even in a year when media layoffs seem a daily part of the news, the firing of three Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists in a single day was a gut punch

NEW YORK (AP) — Even during a year of sobering economic news for media companies, the layoffs of three Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonists on a single day hit like a gut punch.

McClatchy, citing ‘continuing evolution’ for the cuts, says its newspapers will no longer publish daily opinion cartoons

Jack Ohman cannot recall another day like it, even amid decades of brutal cuts in the field of newspaper political cartooning.

This is, alas, a Juxtaposition of the Fired.