Foundation News

A few weeks after the AAEC and three dozen past Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists protested recent changes to the Editorial Cartooning category of journalism’s ‘biggest award’, aspiring cartoonist (and CNN anchor) Jake Tapper has written to the Pulitzer Prize Board encouraging them to rethink their decisions. Here is the letter Tapper sent, reprinted here with his permission.

May 31, 2022

To the Pulitzer Board members:

Does winning a prestigious award mean that Alcaraz is now accepted by the mainstream?

Washington D.C., April 28, 2022 -- All Things Considered weekend host Michel Martin delivered the prestigious lecture at The Herblock Prize awards ceremony held at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., on April 26.

The Los Angeles-based political cartoonist was honored at the Library of Congress with the prestigious Herblock Prize for his "courage and unapologetic focus" on issues.

WASHINGTON — One of the nation's first syndicated Latino cartoonists was honored at a ceremony Tuesday at the Library of Congress, the recipient of the one of the nation's top prizes in editorial cartooning.

The first Latino winner of the Herblock Prize creates art about immigration, vaccine hesitancy and Jan. 6

Lalo Alcaraz was 13 when his father, a landscaper and plant nursery worker in the San Diego area, was killed in a Tijuana car accident. As the child of non-English-speaking immigrants, young Lalo was soon calling his father’s clients to let them know. Instead of expressing sympathy, though, one customer coldly asked him for the phone number of a replacement gardener.

DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) - The Dothan Houston County Library is offering a walk through time for Black History Month.

The main branch of the library is displaying the Long March exhibit from the Herb Block Foundation featuring political cartoons from the Civil Rights era.

The exhibit displays the work of legendary Washington Post editorial cartoonist Herbert L. Block, famously known as “Herblock.”

After a recent visit to two Chicago exhibits (one showing two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin and the other a display of dozens of Chicago’s comic artists), I returned to find a modest treasure: a copy of 1952’s “The Herblock Book” autographed by a cartoonist hero: Herblock.

At a time when the world needs new ways to connect, there are fewer opportunities for people whose life's work is to help us do precisely that.

Political cartooning is a dying profession, but there are more cartoons with politics than ever.

As Facebook has become more active at moderating political speech, it has had trouble dealing with satire.

SAN FRANCISCO — Since 2013, Matt Bors has made a living as a left-leaning cartoonist on the internet. His site, The Nib, runs cartoons from him and other contributors that regularly skewer right-wing movements and conservatives with political commentary steeped in irony.

Herb Block (aka Herblock) (1909-2001), legendary cartoonist for the Washington Post and four-time Pulitzer Prize winner, probably never met Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), but he did admire this artist and his art. He also admired, learned from, and drew upon work by other fine artists. How do we know? To explore this interesting aspect of Herblock’s work, let’s first ask what could the focused, forthright cartoonist possibly have in common with a global star of fine art who pioneered the early abstract style of Cubism?

Join curator Sara W. Duke of the Prints & Photographs Division, to learn how to access the Library's online collection of 20th-century political cartoons. She will also discuss strategies for exploring the work of Herbert L. Block, the editorial cartoonist known as a Herblock, who, during the course of his 72-year career, drew his opinion on events such as the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, gun control and global warming.

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Virginia-based cartoonist Joe Sutliff met Lewis three years ago at the ceremony for the Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning, immediately after the congressman delivered the event’s annual lecture at the Library of Congress. Sutliff identified himself as “a small-time political cartoonist” and said: “I don’t do that much” of influence. But Sutliff says Lewis “looked at me with that [inspiring] look and said: ‘But you do something. Thank you for what you do. Now go do some more.’ ”