Dan Perkins is better known as Tom Tomorrow, a pseudonym under which he draws the widely syndicated cartoon “This Modern World,” which appears in City Pulse and many other alternative newspapers. He was a guest on City Pulse’s radio hour, which airs at 7 p.m. Wednesdays on 88.9 FM The Impact.

You just lost the Village Voice newspaper chain. What happened?

It’s tough times for everybody right now. They’re trying to avoid layoffs, and their response was to drop all syndicated cartoons across the entire chain. I lost newspapers in Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Nashville and about a half dozen more. It’s a huge hit for me. The Internet does not make up for having your work in print. It’s kind of a bad week.

W' hat kind of reader reaction are you getting these days?

One cartoon that was very popular just because it seemed to sum up what everyone felt was the week of the Obama inauguration. I just drew a picture of the Bush administration with a lot of shoes being tossed at them – the final salute. It’s a very simple idea, but it just really struck a chord with people because they were so happy to see Bush gone.

Comics are complaining about losing Bush. Are you going through Bush withdrawal?

No, not in the least. There are only so many ways to talk about how evil and awful and incompetent Bush is and then you still have seven years to fill.

What do you think of Obama?

Now we’ve got this guy who can actually string words together into complete sentences and appears to have intellectual curiosity. Obama is exactly what he ran as. He’s a centrist technocrat. That’s after eight years of torture, wiretapping and this guy in charge who I wondered if he has some sort of neurological disorder. When you look at old clips and recent clips, there’s something going on. Bush can barely talk in recent years. Like finding out that President Reagan had early stage Alzheimer’s, I think we’re going to find out there was something wrong with Bush.


Do you see someone emerging as that next creepy Republican following in the footsteps of Newt Gingrich and George Bush?

Well, John Boehner has been getting a lot of airtime lately, and he certainly has the look if you called central casting for a creepy Republican. The Republican Party is in such disarray that people are looking to Rush Limbaugh for leadership. Sarah Palin has just formed her own PAC, and the speculation is she wants to make a run for president.

Who is the most fun character to draw, real or imaginary?

Cheney, if you could capture that evil, headcocked to one side, talking out of the corner of his mouth look. That was always pretty good.

What did you make of his being in a wheelchair at the inauguration?

Somebody said it made his transformation into a James Bond super villain complete. My back goes out too, so in this one small way I have sympathy for him. But what was he doing moving boxes anyway? Were there things he just couldn’t trust anyone else to take to the shredder?