Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year #2011

The 2011 edition of this long-running annual anthology, edited by Charles Brooks, captures the sharpest political cartooning of the year between two covers. The cover itself features a Scott Stantis caricature — originally published in the Chicago Tribune — depicting a figure smoking multiple cigarettes at once while holding a pack labeled "Unfiltered Spending," with the wry caption "I can't seem to quit..." It's a pointed, witty snapshot of the political anxieties that defined 2010, and a promising preview of the humor and bite waiting inside.