<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Works of influential political cartoonist Herblock on display in county

By Tom Vogt, Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter
Published: January 15, 2017, 6:00am
8 Photos
Monte Wolverton, nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist, in his Clark County studio.
Monte Wolverton, nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist, in his Clark County studio. (The Columbian files) Photo Gallery

Herbert L. Block was always putting ideas in people’s heads:

• U.S. presidents should be held as accountable as everybody else.

• Public treasures shouldn’t be pillaged for private profit.

• The rights of citizenship can’t be packaged differently for different groups of Americans.

And even if his readers were aware of those general concepts, Herb Block could crystallize them into clearly recognizable images.

Under the name Herblock, he drew political cartoons from 1929 until 2001, when he died at age 91. Block won three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning, in 1942, 1954 and 1979. In 1973, he shared a fourth Pulitzer Prize with Washington Post colleagues for public service in the newspaper’s coverage of Watergate.

Herblock observed 13 U.S. presidents, from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. That 72-year-long documentation of global political and social transformation is represented by 14,000 original ink and pencil drawings in the Library of Congress.

Block wasn’t only a visual creator. He is credited with introducing the word “McCarthyism” in a cartoon published on March 29, 1950. Originally targeted at former Sen. Joe McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, the word is still is use today.

If You Go

Three themed exhibitions displaying the work of Herb Block:

 PRESIDENTS: Battle Ground Community Library, 1207 S.E. Eighth Way, Battle Ground, should be installed this week and run to Feb. 28; Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St., Vancouver, March 3-April 11; Cascade Park Community Library, 600 N.E. 136th Ave., Vancouver, April 15-May 20.

 EVER GREEN: Vancouver Community Library, March 2-April 11; Three Creeks Community Library, April 15-May 20.

 SCHOOL BELL: Cascade Park Community Library, March 3-April 12; Three Creeks Community Library, April 15-May 20.

Other works Herblock did decades ago in defense of the environment could be just as timely next week.

Some of those cartoons now are part of a traveling exhibition that will be on display in several Fort Vancouver Regional Library District branches through May 20. The exhibit was produced by the nonprofit Herb Block Foundation, based in Washington, D.C.

Another legacy of Block’s work is represented by a Clark County resident. Nationally syndicated political cartoonist Monte Wolverton grew up as a fan, following Herblock’s work in The Columbian.

And his parents didn’t even take the paper. His dad, Mad magazine cartoonist Basil Wolverton, was an Oregonian subscriber.

“My grandmother took The Columbian, which carried Herblock,” Wolverton recalled. “That was in the 1950s, and even though I didn’t understand what was going on, I remember liking him better than whoever was in The Oregonian.”

Herblock “was kind of progressive. My dad was pretty politically conservative,” Wolverton said.

Now the Hudson’s Bay graduate’s work shows up from time to time in The Columbian’s editorial page, via Cagle Cartoons.

“I never thought I would be doing that,” Wolverton said.

Jim Shinn, former Columbian cartoonist, calls Block “one of the great ones.”

Although Shinn was more of a newsroom artist, “I did a few editorial cartoons at The Columbian,” he said.

“Sometimes it was fun to rail on an issue, maybe go a little overboard,” said Shinn, who retired in 1995 after 30 years at The Columbian. “Editorial cartoonists feel as though they have a certain license.”

Maybe even, Shinn said, “an obligation.”

Loading...
Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter