I was lucky enough to be invited to lunch with Herblock winner Jack Ohman, and took some shots of the cartoons that are permanently on the National Press Club's The Reliable Source restaurant.
These aren't visible to the general public unfortunately. Better captioning comic soon...
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| Jack Ohman, 2026 Herblock prize winner and NPC president Mark Schoeff Jr.in front of Jack's cartoons |
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| The Wizard of Id by Parker and Hart |
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| Snuffy Smith by Fred Laswell |
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| Dick Tracy by Chester Gould |
Matt Wuerker is the cartoonist at Politico and has been since the very beginning. It's based in my town, but I'd never visited the newsroom. During the government shutdown, Matt invited me to come by. With his permission, here's some photos.
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| Politico is in an office building in Rosslyn and you have to travel through what Matt jokingly called 'The Biosphere' to get to the office area. |
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| This wall of cartoons, essentially 3 giant stickers was created about 11 years ago when they moved into this office. |
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| Here's a photo for scale. |
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| Here's the only Trump cartoon, from the 2015 primaries. |
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| He sits at the back of the newsroom with his artist's desk and watercolors |
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| He still draws and paints by hand, and only does some effects digitally. |
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| He's got a few personal touches including a certificate for being an original Politico member (on the pillar) and some cartoonist histories. |
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| He was finishing up a drawing and doing the lettering separately to drop it in with Photoshop. |
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| The finished cartoon on his Instagram feed. |
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| A table of original art sits on the far side of his cubicle for his coworkers and visitors to look through. |
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| This is one of his favorite cartoons of 2025. |
Like many single-panel cartoonists, Matt would like to be published in the New Yorker, and submits some works to them regularly. So far, the acceptance call hasn't come through, although he's won most of the editorial cartooning awards including the Berryman award last week.
This is off-topic, but provided by ComicsDC supporter Randy T from some family clippings. And it's cool.
These cartoons are from Ameri-Topics, a bi-weekly newspaper for Amertorp torpedo manufacturer in St. Louise, from August 18, 1943. The cover says "Published in the interest of the employees of Amertorp." Obviously they relate to World War II.
One is a WWII political cartoon by Fitzgerald. Another is by Rinaldi. There is a strip called Lena and Louie Amertwerp by C.R. Schwartz, which deals with safety in using forklifts.
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| "Axis Co-operation" by Fitzgerald in "The Charge" |
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| Lena and Louie Amertwerp by C.R. Schwartz |
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| "Forward Passer De Luxe" by Rinaldi in the Hole |
Wilson R. set up today at Columbia Pike Farmer's Market. Arlnow just ran a good profile of him at https://www.arlnow.com/2025/07/31/local-artist-launches-satirical-zine-and-street-studio-pop-up-in-clarendon/ so read that for background. I'd note that his take on Trump and the Virginia flag is classic political cartooning. Local cartoonist Christiann MacAuley contributed a Sticky Comics strip to the zine he's doing. He's selling zines, prints, and stickers. Note his mobile art studio is a bicycle.
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| Note the sticker version of the Virginia flag cartoon, which was originally a poster. |
While shifting from the political right to the left, he skewered politicians including Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham and President Donald Trump.
The Post may have lost (aka gotten rid of) most of its political cartoonists, but the daily strips are starting to make up for that.
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.
The stamp's designer, also a speaker raised the question of how the Bill of Rights would fare if it were up for ratification today, quoting critics who ask 'Must our government be weak in the face of men accused of crime, who demand legal advice; weak before those who take the fifth amendment, weak before those who openly express differences with government policy even in time of war?
"The answer", he said, "is that the restriction imposed on government by the Bill of Rights - these so-called weakness of our government in relation to the rights of the individual person, of the poorest, the meanest or the most misguided of its people -- these are in fact our nation's greatest strength."
Update: the photograph from the cover is in the Library of Congress, but only available at low-resolution unless you visit. Thanks, Sara Duke!
