Our Long National Nightmare

by Tom Tomorrow

Relive the trauma of the last five years through the Pulitzer-nominated cartoons of Tom Tomorrow, from the early days of the pandemic, through the Biden interregnum, and finally into the incomprehensible, malevolent chaos of Trump's second term. It's a laugh a minute! And there's always more to come, because we won't be waking up from this nightmare any time soon -- but Tom Tomorrow will be there to chronicle it all, at least until he gets renditioned to El Salvador.

Genres: Humor, Comics

282 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2025

About the author

Tom Tomorrow is the pen name of editorial cartoonist Dan Perkins, creator of the weekly political cartoon, This Modern World, which appears in approximately 80 newspapers across the U.S., and on websites such as Daily Kos, Truthout and Credo. His work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Spin, Mother Jones, Esquire, The Economist, The Nation, U.S. News and World Report, and The American Prospect, and has been featured on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

From 1999-2001, he worked on a series of animated web cartoons which can be viewed here.

In 2009, he created the cover art for the Pearl Jam album Backspacer.

In 2011 he ended a 16 year run at Salon to create and edit a new comics section at Daily Kos.

He has published nine anthologies of his work:

–Greetings From This Modern World (1992)
–Tune in Tomorrow (1994)
–The Wrath of Sparky (1996)
–Penguin Soup for the Soul (1998)
–When Penguins Attack (2000) (introduction by Dave Eggers)
–The Great Big Book of Tomorrow (2003)
–Hell in a Handbasket (2006)
–The Future’s So Bright I Can’t Bear to Look (2008)
Too Much Crazy (2010)

He is also the author of a book for children, The Very Silly Mayor (2009).

He received the first place Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1998 and in 2003. Other honors include:

1993: Media Alliance Meritorious Achievement Award
1995: Society of Professional Journalists James Madison Freedom of Information Award
2000: Association for Education in Journalism and Education, Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award
2001: James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism
2004: Altweekly Award, 2nd Place
2006: Altweekly Award, 3rd Place

Tom Tomorrow is available for speaking engagements. For further information, contact tomtomorrow (at) gmail (dot) com. He is also currently in the market for a new publisher, if anyone’s interested.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A limited edition (funded by Kickstarter) of the last five years of the cartoonist's satiric work, it is both brilliant and chilling in recording the times from Covid through Biden and the descent into Trump 2.0. His uncanny caricatures (JD Vance as a bellhop, Stephen Miller as a vampire) are so on target you'll never look at the real ones the same way again.

If you can track down a used copy (a few new ones may still be available at this writing at the end of 2025), grab it.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Tom Tomorrow's strip periodically over the years, so when the opportunity came up to support this collection on Kickstarter I took the plunge. Saying I enjoyed it is maybe not quite the right word. Given that this covered the absolute hellscape that was 2020, then the Biden Interregnum, with the inexorable return to the absurdity of Trump II, it was like rewatching a particularly gruesome trainwreck. I guess it helps to be able to laugh at that which is killing us.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cartoons are great, but taken in large doses they are also despair-inducing.