Product Description

Humor's Edge is the first book to explore the brilliant work of Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes. A compendium of more than 85 of Telnaes's most important and remarkable works from 1996 to 2004, Humor's Edge reveals the depth of Telnaes' convictions about issues at the core of public life, from presidential politics to international women's rights. These full-color and black-and white cartoons are accompanied by descriptions of the social and political context of the issues addressed, along with an introduction by acclaimed cartoonist Ben Sargent, an essay by Martha H. Kennedy, an in-depth interview by Library of Congress curator Harry Katz.

A tireless indignation powers Telnaes' streamlined drawings. She takes on the important and complex issues of the day, distilling their essence and expressing her sense of humor and her sense of justice—and injustice. No one and no thing is spared, whether Washington pols, international bullies, or "sacred" societal institutions, but she also celebrates human resilience. Bringing a humorous yet cutting original spirit to her art, Ann Telnaes sheds a distinctive light on contemporary issues.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #756037 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08
• Format: Box set
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Telnaes won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, and this fine collection of her syndicated political cartoons shows it was certainly justified. Her cartoons go beyond the usual easy labels and apples-in-a-barrel caricatures to take on issues with grace and wit. The work, which is being published in conjunction with a Library of Congress exhibition of Telnaes's work, falls on the liberal side of the fence. Telnaes's critiques of George W. Bush are scathing, but lack the shrill hysteria that can infect political cartoons on both sides of the party divide. To accentuate the plight of Afghan women, Telnaes shows a group of them chained to a bomb labeled "Taliban Regime" as they admonish readers to "Aim carefully, please." Another cartoon is silent, with only a flagpole festooned with surveillance cameras to carry its firm message. Telnaes's solid concepts are helped along by an artistic clarity: she has an unusually clean, expressive line, which harks back to her cartoon heroes Robert Osborn and Saul Steinberg. By their nature, political cartoons are dated, and collections even more so, but Telnaes's art holds up. This handsome volume also includes an in-depth interview with Telnaes and examples of her rough sketches.
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From the Inside Flap
Welcome to the third millennium, as seen through the eyes of Ann Telnaes, the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Her witty, bold, and visually striking cartoons appeal to millions of newspaper and online readers across the country and around the world. Telnaes' work exemplifies the finest tradition of the "ungentlemanly" art of editorial cartooning—she comments with a critical, humorous, and fearless honesty on current events as varied as the 2000 presidential election, terrorist attacks and war, and threats to freedom of expression, civil liberties, and international women's rights. Whether dissenting or affirming, exposing hypocrisy or celebrating human resilience, Telnaes brings a refreshing and original spirit to the art of cartooning and sheds a distinctive light on contemporary issues.

About the Author
Ann Telnaes began publishing cartoons in 1992 and is nationally syndicated. Her work has appeared in such newspapers as The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Austin American-Statesman, the Chicago Tribune, and the St. Louis Post Dispatch; she is also on the Internet, and she contributes to the comic strip Six Chix. In 2001 she won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, and in 2003 she received the Berryman Award from the National Press Foundation.

Harry Katz is head curator of the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress, where he is also curator of popular and applied graphic art. He is the author or editor of several books about comic strips, drawings, prints, and cartoons, and has recorded interviews with legendary cartoonists, including Al Hirschfeld, Pat Oliphant—and Ann Telnaes.

Customer Reviews

More About the Cartoonist
"A board member of the Cartoonists Rights Network, Ann Telnaes worked several years at Walt Disney Imagineering as a designer. Her editorial cartoons have been exhibited in Washington, D.C., and Paris. Her many awards include the National Press Foundation's Berryman Award (2003); the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning (2001); and The National Headliner Award for Editorial Cartoons (1997)."--© Pomegranate

An hilarious collection of editorial cartoons
Humor's Edge is an hilarious collection of editorial cartoons by Ann Telnaes. Each sharply worded, briskly and cleanly drawn cartoon offers a scathing insight into recent matters of cotemporary politics or daily life, and captions explaining the news events driving the cartoons make their often dark meaning crystal clear. As edgy as the title suggests, and as thought-provoking as it is entertaining, Humor's Edge is a political cartoon compilation that cuts to the quick.

Some books are for entertainment, others are for instruction. A few of them in every generation are sources of an inspiration that change s lives and alters destiny.