This Modern World

This Modern World is a weekly comic strip/political cartoon by Tom Tomorrow AKA Dan Perkins. Appearing in various alternative newspapers around the US, and online at Daily Kos, the strip takes a very very liberal look at current events. Often stars Sparky, an acerbic sunglass-wearing penguin, and the Very Nice dog Blinky.

Tomorrow has also written a (theoretically non-political) children's book The Very Silly Mayor.

The strip's official site is here.

This Modern World contains examples of:

 * Animated Adaptation: A Web Animation during the dot-com boom.
 * Author Avatar: Sparky.
 * The Blank: In one series of strips, one of these runs for president.
 * Cool Shades: Sparky's eyewear.
 * Crap Saccharine World
 * Cut and Paste Comic: Tomorrow uses/traces over vintage clipart to create the strip's look.
 * Earthshattering Kaboom: Depicted more than once.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Plutocrat Pete and Tea Party Tim both hate taxes, but Plutocrat Pete doesn't want to force the government to default, and sees Tim as a "nihilistic moron willing to crash the entire economy."
 * Everything's Better with Penguins: Sparky.
 * Kill the Poor: One strip shows a post-apocalyptic world where the poor are fattened up on the available food and eaten by the rich.
 * Straw Character: Biff, the strip's resident Republican.
 * Straw Hypocrite
 * Take That: Republicans and conservatives in general.
 * Wall of Text: Lampshaded by the artist on more than one occasion.