January 8, 2011 Sane as it ever was

I've mentioned before my penchant for late 19th and early 20th Century political and editorial cartoonists and their pen and ink work. Frederick Opper is the person whose work I like the most.

I just picked up a couple of pieces by Rollin Kirby,and they are more than worth the price of admission.

Rollin Kirby was a 3-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons (1922, 1925, and 1929), which were generally published in the New York Post, the New York Mail, and the New York News. In fact, he was the first recipient of a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning.

These two cartoons are simply stunning because of the subject matter. Re-do then with a touch of modernity and you have to change absolutely nothing to have a still-relevant message. These might have been done in response to the Scopes trial, which took place in 1925. I need to do a little detective work on them.