During the election this year, I wondered what Steve was doing, his biting commentary on the goings on in Washington is always great. I become a little fan-boy around his work, he is JUST THAT GOOD. There some other pretty amazing caricaturists out there, Philip Burke, Hanoch Piven and Bill Pympton come to mind. Steve is currently doing a series of videos for The New Yorker online, that are commentaries on the ’08 election campaigns this year. The videos are directed by Gail Levin, with animation by Asterisk. You can view the videos on the website individually, or subscribe to them via iTunes or XML feed.  I did have some problem the feed into iTunes, you may have to massage the files after they download to your drive.

They show Steve in action, doing what he does best. He is so accomplished that he can see these people in his head and can distort them anyway he wants to fit them into a narrative without too much effort. I’ve never seen him work “live” where he starts a drawing and you think it’s one thing, but he’s willing to destroy it to show you another aspect of the campaign from his point of view.

Not everyone’s going to like his work or his views – he is brilliant, scathing and “progressive” would probably be the best description for his political bent. But if you take a look at his New Yorker series (which you can also find on YouTube if they disappear from the New Yorker site) – you can’t walk away without seeing something you haven’t seen before.

In the tradition of Thomas Nast, who was one of his earliest influences, Steve has elevated caricaturing to Art with a capital “A” in my mind.  If you’ve ever met Steve, you will also know that he is one of the most passionate, opinionated and nice  people you will ever meet – the fanboy in me was thrilled to find the videos.

His personal site is at stevebrodner.com – you should take a look at his other work, looks like he keeps it up-to-date and he also blogs at drawger.com/stevebrodner