You gotta admit though, he was getting brittle before he died. Like his blood brother Al Capp of “Li’l Abner” fame before he bowed out. His humor had evaporated towards the end and he was getting just plain nasty at times. I remember the way he depicted LBJ, Nixon and Agnew. Not funny, just crude and angry.
By the early seventies the torch had been passed to Gary Trudeau (”Doonesbury”). Doonesbury could be sublime in it’s treatment of the Watergate Follies but Trudeau went off the rails with his hatred of Reagan and never made it back. Berke Breathed (”Bloom County”) picked up the gauntlet in the early eighties.
I also recall checking out Herblock collections from the library as a kid. That guy never even TRIED to be funny! Although at his death everybody who worked with him said he was a delight to know.
I had lost the habit of reading the comics before Walt Kelly’s decline. Fortunately I missed it and only remember him with amusement.
I grew up near Washington DC and remember Herbert Block all too well. A crude hater, imagine Olbermann trying his hand at cartooning and you get an idea of Herblock.