The Kentucky Gateway Museum Center will host a new Herblock exhibit entitled From Crayons to Cartoons on Jan. 22. Also featured are former Ledger Independent cartoonists James Mulcahy and John Van Meter.
Herb Block worked at the Chicago Daily News before going to the Washington Post in 1946. He worked at The Post under five editors and five publishers although they soon learned a cardinal rule: Don?t mess with Herb. He was given complete independence because he was a genius at what he did.
Katherine Graham, long-time chairman of the Washington Post said “I have sometime opened the paper and gasped at Herb?s cartoons, but I learned not to interfere. And anyway most of the time we?re on the same wave length. Even when we aren?t I should confess, I generally find myself laughing uproariously at the cartoon that has caused my apprehension. Herb’s unique ability to crystallize what is right — or, more likely wrong — about an issue or a person has often influenced the course of events in Washington. His point of view is liberal and his instincts are commonsensical. But his common sense has a special twist … his mind turns to the rascals, the phonies and the frauds.”