In this year’s Humor Issue, we return to Billy Borne’s cartoons. Though his work was published in The Asheville Citizen for over 20 years, our focus is on 1921. As his illustrations exhibit, the Roaring 20s did not actually kick off with a bang but rather an economic recession-turned-depression. By the end of 1921, however, things picked up, and the party officially began. (Until another depression crashed its fun in 1929.)
Yet despite these early economic woes, Borne’s cartoons illustrate how Western North Carolina had big, progressive aspirations throughout the year — from environmental cleanup to education reform.
