Oh, No! Sparkman Has Become A Latte-Sipping America Hater!

In "This Modern World," a pair of recurring major characters are —

Sparky the Wonder Penguin
Sparky can actually talk while wearing a pair of goggles to filter out the bat guano supplied by the Dumbos. Spark's first words in the strip are "George [H. W.] Bush is a wanker." A strong liberal advocate, he briefly became a Republican after being hit on the head with a random falling toilet. In today's strip, Sparky has become Sparkman and battles the Righty Masters of Deceit.

Blinky the Dog
A small dog (Boston Terrier) who shares some of Sparky's political sympathies. Normally very mellow, he briefly became a radical when steroids were put into his food when he was intended to replace the then-Republican Sparky. In today's strip, Blinky has become Sparkman's faithful companion, The Blinkster and together the fearless duo do battle with the False Narrative promoted by the Dumbos.

In today's 'toon, Sparkman and The Blinkster are confronted by the arch-villain, The Propagandist (aka William Kristol, token Righty on the NY Fiswrap's Op-Ed page). Today's episode begins when The Propagandist takes on the heavy-hitting, anti-Dumbo attack ad, "Not Alex." And in the time-honored tradition of the Saturday afternoon serials, we will have to stay tuned to "This Modern World." Will The Propagandist prevail or will Sparkman and The Blinkster vanquish the evil manipulator of words and images? Will Sparkman snap out of it in time?

The game is afoot. If this is (fair & balanced) agitprop, so be it.

Copyright © 2008 MoveOn.org

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Copyright © 2008 Tom Tomorrow

Tom Tomorrow/Dan Perkins

[Dan Perkins is an editorial cartoonist better known by the pen name "Tom Tomorrow". His weekly comic strip, "This Modern World," which comments on current events from a strong liberal perspective, appears regularly in approximately 150 papers across the U.S., as well as on Salon and Working for Change. The strip debuted in 1990 in SF Weekly.

Perkins, a long time resident of Brooklyn, New York, currently lives in Connecticut. He received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in both 1998 and 2002.

When he is not working on projects related to his comic strip, Perkins writes a daily political weblog, also entitled "This Modern World," which he began in December 2001.]

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