Like jazz and baseball, cartoons are an indelible, indigenous part of American culture. Cartoon America celebrates more than 250 years of American cartooning with an unprecedented selection of works by the best, most accomplished creators in the history of comic illustration, including Thomas Nast, Charles Schulz, Winsor McCay, Jules Feiffer, and many, many others. With accompanying essays written exclusively for this volume--by such luminaries as John Updike, Art Spiegelman, and Chris Ware, the book includes many firsts, earliests, and one-of-a-kinds, including cells from early animated films, vintage editorial cartoons, works by overlooked pioneering women illustrators, and much more. Published in conjunction with the the Library of Congress's landmark exhibition of original art from the collection of cartoonist J. Arthur Wood, Jr., this is a treasure trove for the cartoon enthusiast and an authoritative survey of a distinctly American art form.