Bates on Bush

Distributor to bookstores: Ingram Book CompanyGlobally available with Online Book Sellers throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia.Bates on Bush has been called the perfect gift for friends, relatives, colleagues, and everyone else appalled by what happened to America during the Bush years.After over thirty years of producing celebrity portraits, sketches of his world travels, and a weekly cartoon poking gentle fun at local foibles, Pulitzer nominee Bill Bates had become a cherished icon for Carmelians and the thousands of tourists who pour in from around the world to delight in the quaint charm of California's tiny Carmel-by-the Sea. Then the election of George W.Bush became a ?mad-as-hell and I'm not going to take it any more? moment for this American successor to the great French political cartoonist Honore Daumier. With artistry to rival the best of the classic American cartoonists, Bates captures the cumulating lunacy of the rise and fall of President Dubya, Vice President Cheney, defense secretary Rumsfeld, neo-con Paul Wolfowitz, the dark ?political genius? Karl Rove, scandal-ridden attorney general Gonzalez, along with the trillion-dollar devastation and heart-rending tragedy of the Iraq war. Bates? laugh with a tug at the heart commentary on what inspired each cartoon makes Bates on Bush a dual tour de force. On one hand, it's a rare collection of the kind of laughs worldwide we delight in for the lift they provide in grim times. On the other hand, far more than the customary cartoon book, it's a visual chunk of American and world history likely to long endure.An early glimpse at what became this new stream for Bates? artistry won a 2006 California Newspaper Publishers Award for political cartooning. Now they're here in a bargain-price book for all the world.Forthcoming from Benjamin Franklin Press are new editions of Bates famous classic cartoon books on Carmel, his sketchbooks of exotic islands with rollicking commentary from his shipboard travels to 133 countries, and the story telling magic of his illustrated memoirs of adventures on all continents. In these new editions of earlier favorites and new books by Bates all the fun, beauty, and glory of our world and a lasting celebration of the diversity and wonder of our now endangered great planetary heritage for our children, and our children's children, comes alive.