Nationality American Name Tom Tomorrow Awards full list | Area(s) cartoonist Role Editorial cartoonist | |
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Books The great big book of Tomorrow, Penguin soup for the soul, Tune In Tomorrow, The wrath of Sparky, When penguins attack! Profiles |
Dan perkins aka tom tomorrow the work of a political cartoonist
Tom Tomorrow is the pen name of editorial cartoonist Dan Perkins. His weekly comic strip This Modern World, which comments on current events, appears regularly in over 80 newspapers across the United States and Canada as of 2015, as well as on CREDO Action and Daily Kos, where he was the former comics curator and now is a regular contributor. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Spin, Mother Jones, Esquire, The Economist, and The American Prospect.
Contents
- Dan perkins aka tom tomorrow the work of a political cartoonist
- Trailer crazy is the new normal by tom tomorrow
- Career
- This Modern World
- Personal life
- Works and publications
- Awards
- References

Trailer crazy is the new normal by tom tomorrow
Career

Perkins was first published in a magazine called Processed World. Taking as subject matter, consumer culture and the drudgery of work, a theme shared by the magazine, This Modern World was launched. In 1990, the strip began to be run in the SF Weekly before being picked up in the fall of 1991 by the Examiner. During this time of expanding audiences for Perkin's, he shifted the focus of his work to politics. Perkins added papers throughout the nineties, distributing his comic via self-syndication, a practice he's continued throughout his career.

In 1998, Perkins was asked by editor James Fallows to contribute a bi-weekly cartoon to U.S. News and World Report, but was fired less than six months later, reportedly at the direction of owner Mort Zuckerman.

In 1999, Perkins had an animation deal with Saturday Night Live and produced three animated spots that were never aired. In 2000 and 2001, his online animated series was the top-billed attraction in Mondo Media's lineup of mini-shows, in which the voice of Sparky the Penguin was provided by author and Jeopardy! champion Bob Harris. Perkins has also collaborated with Michael Moore, according to a 2005 interview with Santa Cruz Metro.

In December, 2007, Keith Olbermann devoted the closing segment of an episode of his show to a reading of "Bill O'Reilly's Very Useful Advice for Young People," a two-page cartoon/cover story by Perkins for The Village Voice.

In 2009, Village Voice Media, publishers of 16 alternative weeklies, suspended all syndicated cartoons across their entire chain. Perkins lost twelve client papers in cities including Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, and Seattle, prompting his friend Eddie Vedder to post an open letter on the Pearl Jam website in support of the cartoonist. Vedder and Perkins had become friends after meeting at a campaign rally for Ralph Nader in 2000. The collaboration between Pearl Jam and Perkins continued with an invite to submit cover art for the Backspacer album in 2009. After being selected to provide the cover art for Backspacer, Perkins went on to create a series of Halloween-themed posters for the concerts supporting the album.

In 2015, Perkins was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize and later in the year ran a newsmaking Kickstarter campaign that raised over $300,000 to publish a career retrospective, 25 Years of Tomorrow.
This Modern World

This Modern World is Perkin's ongoing comic strip that has been continually published for over 25 years. While it often ridicules those in power, the strip also focuses on the average American's support for contemporary leaders and their policies, as well as the popular media's role in shaping public perception.

In addition to any politicians and celebrities depicted, the strip has several recurring characters:
He began his blog, also called This Modern World, in September 2001.
Personal life
Perkins, a longtime resident of both San Francisco, California, and Brooklyn, New York, currently lives in New Haven.
Works and publications
Anthologies of This Modern World
Children's picture book