Peter Bagge's Reason Cartoons: In Book Form and Publisher's Weekly Approved

Reason magazine's own supercartoonist Peter Bagge has a brand-new collection of his Reason comics journalism collected in the covers of a real book, and available as of right now. It's called Everybody is Stupid Except Me, and Other Astute Observations.

Publisher's Weekly interviewed him about it. Excerpts:

PWCW: Has the post-9/11 America actually become even more insane, or was 9/11 just an excuse to allow the collective madness to run rampant with fewer questions asked?

PB: Both! Our collective response to 9-11 has been appalling, in that most Americans were (and are) totally willing to throw the Constitution right in the trash heap without any hesitation. Most of us have no idea what's even IN the Constitution, let alone why. My daughter recently graduated from public school, and her teachers didn't discuss the Bill of Rights once in those 13 years. They never taught her a single civics lesson! The paranoid part of me can't help but think that was intentional.

PWCW: In the wake of your observations and Libertarian-leaning opinions, have you received any backlash from readers who find your observations to be "anti-American?

PB: Not so much "anti-American, but I've received a lot of harsh feedback from people who are deeply offended by my libertarian-leaning worldview, which to them is bad enough.

PWCW: What has doing a series that's all social commentary taught Peter Bagge?

PB: That doing social commentary is difficult! At least when it comes to getting your point across as clearly as possible, while still being entertaining. I also tried to reach out to fence-straddlers and avoid preaching to the choir as much as possible. I could have taken the Doonesbury route and pandered to my fellow libertarians by pretending I (and they) had all the answers, but that would have been both too easy and dishonest. If I felt ambivalent about something I would say so, rather than pretend otherwise.

And you can buy it on Amazon, and you should! A while back, the Washington Post praised Bagge's political cartooning.

Comments

[*]

Actually, you can only pre-order it on Amazon at the moment. Which I just did, incidentally. This looks great.

I look forward to the collection of Reason's Friday Funnies...NOT!

[alan]

could have taken the Doonesbury route and pandered to my fellow libertarians by pretending I (and they) had all the answers

Recall the week earlier this year where Doonesbury played up the idea that the Obama administration was running the K Street lobbyist out of business? I have always wondered if G T is actually stupid enough to believe his own propaganda, or like most of his ilk, too heartless to care either way.

[chroma]

Bagge deserves a Pulitzer. He won't get one, of course, as 1) he is actually funny and 2) he can actually tell a story across several panels.

[dead_elvis]

Why doesn't he have a regular spot in Reason anymore?

[wingnutx]

PB's cartooning really embiggened REASON.

[Ray Gardner]

The only reason he might not get a Pulitzer is because he takes more space to tell his story. Michael Ramirez got one despite his Right wing substance, but he does his schtick in the more standard one panel format.

Cartoons are greatly underrated by editors and publishers as a great way to make editorial statements. I've always believed that putting either a whole cartoon above the fold on a regular daily newspaper, or a snippet of the cartoon at least would drive more readership since the graphic and instant nature of its message would be able to compete with our shortened attention spans.

[Cabeza de Vaca]

My friend has a Flaming Lips t-shirt that Peter Bagge did. I tried to buy one, but they don't sell them anymore. 🙁

[James Ard]

Glad to hear Peter is questioning public education's motives. This is the weekend to beat the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights into your children. Make them read both and quiz them on it.

[FrBunny]

Cartoons are greatly underrated by editors and publishers as a great way to make editorial statements.

Maybe. More often though*, editors continue printing shitty cartoons with nothing to say.

*as in 99.9% of the time

[Grundle]

Peter Bagge? Meh.

Gimme Hank Payne or Chip Bock. That's where the real talent is!

[Mike]

"Has the post-9/11 America actually become even more insane, or was 9/11 just an excuse to allow the collective madness to run rampant with fewer questions asked?

Both"

So Bagge thinks that America is insane? Thanks, but I'll pass on the book.