Simplicity is an enigmatic and elusive quality. We often say we admire and desire it, but seldom feel we have reached it.

French/Italian illustrator Yan Nascimbene manages to achieve that quality often in his serene and engaging illustrations that dwell on the enchantment of the ordinary.

Obviously very influenced by the simplicity and charm of Japanese woodblock prints, and probably the ligne claire style of European comics artists like Hergé and others, Nascimbene has illustrated dozens of books, as well as providing illustrations for publications like Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe and Atlantic Monthly, and advertising illustration for companies like IBM, Apple, Macy’s, Air France, British Airways and Bank of America.

He seems most devoted, however, to his illustrations for books by an Italian writer named Italo Calvino like Aventures, Palomar and Le baron Perché. I’m not familiar with Calvino, but after reading Nascimbene’s comments, I plan to check him out.

Nascimbene uses a deceptively simple line and beautifully controlled atmospheric color to draw us into the magic within the commonplace. He has a fascination with rays of light, dappled sun and the subtle chiariscuro of midday summer shadows that enliven his compositions with a subtle rhythm and poetic geometry.

Herbert Block, who signed his name Herblock, was one of the most influential and widely respected American editorial cartoonists in the 20th Century. His remarkable career, most of which was spent on the staff of the Washington Post, spanned much of the 20th Century and extended into the 21st, from 1929 to 2001.

Herblock did exactly what an editorial cartoonist should do; he pointed out corruption, graft, sleaze, stupidity, and the other dangers inherent in any political system that puts power-hungry people in power; and he did it with wit, style and a flare for holding up the truth like a flag.

He went after dangerous megalomaniacs like Senator Joseph McCarthy, and was, in fact, the one who coined the term “McCarthyism”, which we now use to identify any politician who uses scare-tactic witch-hunting to aggregate power and inflence.

He went after Nixon and his corrupt cronies in the 70’s, earning in the process his third Pulitzer Prize. He also garnered other awards in his career, including the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award and Editorial Cartoon Award (twice). He was elected to the NCS Hall of Fame in 1979 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1944.

Herblock’s drawing style was as straightforward as his writing, quick, to the point, and dead on target. He drew his cartoons in a combination of pencil, pen and crayon, often pasting up bits and dropping out areas with white-out. There was no pretension of the finished piece being a work of art headed for a frame, this was news commentary and was meant to be created quickly, photographed and slapped on the press.

The Library of Congress has assembled an exhibit of Herblock’s cartoons, both physical and virtual. The physical exhibit, Enduring Outrage: Editorial Cartoons by Herblock, at the LOC in Washintgon, D.C. runs from July 17 of this year to January 20, 2007. The online exhibit will probably stay up for an extended period as most of the LOC exhibits do.

The online exhibit (and I presume the physical one) features both the final cartoon as prepared for the camera, and in many cases preliminary sketches, a real treat that we don’t often get to see. There are more cartoons listed in the Checklist of Objects.

It’s worth noting how eerily relevant many of Herblock’s cartoons from the 1960’s and 70’s are to today’s news, particularly in terms of issues like deficit spending, domestic spying, the erosion of civil liberties in the name of “security”, the political influence of religious factions and ethics scandals with their attendant cover-ups. Nice to know we’re making such progress.

Hey you! Yes, you!

Are you an American citizen?
Did you vote yet?
No?
Well, go ahead, I’ll wait.
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Back already?
That was easy enough wasn’t it? Feels good, doesn’t it? Very important too, and not just for the obvious reasons. Things like funding for the arts, federal support for art education programs and the standards for taxes as they relate to contributions for arts related non-profit organizations; all of these things are decided at the congressional level, and are directly influenced by mid-term elections.

So are issues like whether or not we’ll have to re-institute a military draft, if we can’t recruit enough to keep the military all-volunteer. But maybe we should once again call on the power of Uncle Sam to attract recruits with his famous “I want YOU for the U.S. Army!” pointed finger poster.

This image, which is the most famous and enduring image of Uncle Sam, was painted by the great illustrator James Montgomery Flagg. (Sounds too patriotic to be true, doesn’t it?)

Mostly remembered as a recruiting poster for the U.S. Army, used in both World War I and World War II, the image was originally created for a magazine cover published prior the the U.S. entry into WWI, and was accompanied by the heading “What Are YOU Doing for Preparedness?”.

The pose was based on a British Army recruitment poster for WWI (below, left), showing Lord Kitchner, then England’s Secretary of State for War. It was drawn by British illustrator Alfred Leete and was also originally created for a magazine cover.

The origin of the name of Uncle Sam is in a bit of question; suffice it to say that it works well as a name with the abbreviation “U.S.” (which is also the origin of the “$” dollar sign, by the way, an extended letter “S” overlaid with a condensed letter “U”, with the bottom of the “U” eventually removed, leaving two vertical lines).

The concept of Uncle Sam as the personification (gamers, read: “avatar”) of the United States existed for a while before he was first given representation as an image, initially drawn by cartoonist Frank Bellew in the early 1850’s.

It was famous political cartoonist Thomas Nast (who was also responsible for creating the elephant and donkey symbols to represent the Republican and Democratic parties) who gave Uncle Sam the form we now recognize, with his top hat, beard and striped pants (below, middle).

It was Flagg, however, a superb illustrator about whom I will write more in the future, who really put the image in our minds. Flagg did other illustrations of Uncle Sam (above, right), but it is the stern finger-pointing image we always remember (an image for which Flagg used his own face as the model).

It is an image so iconic and powerful that few people, if you ask, will remember that the painting has an unfinished character, leaving Sam minus his left arm. Our attention is drawn inexorably to those piercing eyes and that pointing finger.

Oh, and if you’re reading this on Election Day and you still didn’t vote yet, — go ahead. Tell ’em Sam sent you!