This Modern World is a weekly satirical comic strip by cartoonist and political commentator Tom Tomorrow (aka Dan Perkins) that covers current events from a liberal point of view. Tomorrow also runs a weblog that informs readers about stories of interest, often presented as a follow up to his cartoons.
This Modern World is drawn in a distinctive retro style, with brightly colored illustrations that often look as if they would be at home in an 1950s advertisement. The '50s theme extends to the dialogue of his human characters which is often bubbly, over-enthusiastic, and naïve. The stupidity of the humans is countered by Sparky, a fast-talking penguin with sunglasses who provides much of the strip's political commentary.
A constantly underlying theme in the comic books (and later, the strips) was that of 'reality engineering', wherin "the very fabric of space and time" is mined for "the good of mankind". This periodically generates "reality discontinuities", where reality breaks down. These are (generally) resolved by reality engineers.
