The Uncertain Future: Tom Tomoroow

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IT MIGHT BE WRONG to credit Tom Tomorrow with single-handedly creating "This Modern World." He couldn't have done it without a host of venal pols and corrupt tycoons, not to mention a clueless citizenry suckled by a bullying punditocracy that renders cogent debate as likely as a moonbat/wingnut love-in.

"The Future's So Bright, I Can't Bear to Look" collects three years of Tomorrow's strip, preserving the outcry of an exasperated, angry, even baffled voice in times that are absurd beyond imagining.

It's a good read, and it's made of paper, so when the lights finally do go out, it'll burn for a little while.

» EXPRESS: Do current crises pose a unique challenge to the weekly cartoonist?
» TOMORROW: My problem right now is I simply can't keep up. I had a whole cartoon about Sarah Palin's rollout that was ready to go, and by the end of the week the entire financial system had melted down and it felt like a cartoon from three months ago.

» EXPRESS: Who's the most horrifying political figure on the scene today?
» TOMORROW: I'd have to say Sarah Palin, because we know so little about her, and what we do know is really terrifying.

» EXPRESS: Does she seem incomprehensible?
» TOMORROW: I grew up in a rural area. There were people in my immediate family that Sarah Palin reminds me of. I feel like I know Sarah Palin. That does not make me sleep any easier at night.

» EXPRESS: So is Alaskan secession — right now, this instant — a good idea?
» TOMORROW: You're gonna get me in trouble. I run in a paper up there. ... If they want their independence, who are we to hold them back?

» EXPRESS: Do you ever worry that things will become so scary they're no longer funny?
» TOMORROW: It's not really about things being scary; it's about people being stupid. And I don't worry that there's ever going to come a time when people are not so stupid that it won't be funny.

» EXPRESS: What's with the penguin in the Devo shades?
» TOMORROW: Early on, I felt like there were too many layers. I didn't have any characters who I could actually speak directly through. ... Sometimes it's easier just to say what you mean, and so I wanted a character who looked like he wandered in from some other cartoon entirely.

» EXPRESS: Which ticket's better for your career?
» TOMORROW: I guess I would have to say Obama/Biden, because I have more confidence that there will be a functioning America with an economic system and that we will not have devolved into some post-apocalyptic-"Mad-Max"-shootout-in-the-streets sort of world. That would not be good for my career.

» Politics & Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW; Fri., Oct. 3, with Lynda Barry, 7 p.m.; Tomorrow, 9 p.m., free; 202-364-1919. (Van Ness-UDC)

Written by Glenn Dixon
Image courtesy Tom Tomorrow