When I started at the Deseret News, my cartoons had to be faxed to church leaders for approval!
The Cartoonist in a Banker’s Suit
In the summer of 1973, in between riding my bike and playing sandlot baseball, two significant events changed my life:
PBS aired the Watergate hearings. (I was obsessed with watching them!)
My father, who was a cartoonist trapped in a banker’s suit, drew cartoons in church to keep us squirmy kids quiet. (I started drawing cartoons too.)
By my senior year in high school, I was the staff cartoonist of the student newspaper, drawing caricatures of the principal, which earned me a trip to his office. I had already been planning a career in political cartooning, the reprimand simply strengthened my resolve.
Later I drew for my college newspaper, took a job as a sign painter, and landed my first political cartooning job at a weekly newspaper in Bountiful, Utah.
Young me drawing cartoons for the school paper (1982)
My Dream Job, With Strings
Then in 1995, I began drawing for the Deseret News. I was a liberal-leaning cartoonist drawing for a paper owned by a church whose politics weren’t my own — in one of the reddest states! My cartoons were faxed to Mormon church leaders for approval before they could run in the next day’s paper. Talk about intimidating! Thankfully, that only lasted for a few months before a newly hired non-Mormon managing editor put the kibosh on that.
I grew up Mormon, so I knew many of the sacred cows. I also received advice from former Deseret News cartoonist Cal Grondahl, who quit in frustration a handful of years earlier. I knew the topics to avoid, and the views that would and would not make it into the paper. Gun-control received a surprising OK; supporting gay marriage was a no-no.
And a 9/11 cartoon of a man flipping off Bin Laden was absolutely out of the question — though I submitted it anyway. Knowing it would be killed, I had another version ready.
The Compromises
The original was a powerful cartoon that reflected the outrage of Americans at the time. I felt that an exception could be made based upon the national mood. But my editor immediately pushed back. So I submitted the compromise cartoon, which was not only weaker but made a joke of the whole thing. So here’s the rejected cartoon, making its first public appearance, twenty-five years late.
The original Bin Laden cartoon (2001)
I softened a lot of cartoons, avoided drawing others, and I drew some that I wish I had not drawn at all — which they gladly published. I was young, I was foolish, and I was so happy to be working ANYWHERE as a cartoonist that I sacrificed some personal principles to keep my publisher happy. Ugh! Is there a rewind button?
“Law Abiding Constitution Believing American”
For some reason, however, the conservative Deseret News was OK with my liberal views on gun-control. So I drew A LOT of gun-control cartoons, which stirred up readers, prompting several to send in letters to the editor in protest.
One in particular prompted the Deseret News to tighten security. The cartoon depicted an Old West street. A Republican elephant has gunned down a figure labeled “Gun-Control Bill.” The body lay face down in the dirt, smoke billowing from the fresh wound. An anonymous reader clipped it from the newspaper, labeled the shooter “Law Abiding Constitution Believing American With Backbone,” and scribbled out “Gun Control” on the dead body, replacing it with my signature.
The mailed-in threat, sent to the Deseret News in 1998.
You can see the rest of the message in the image above. The Deseret News took the threat seriously, which I was grateful for. I continued to draw gun-control cartoons, though.
Cartoonist In Exile
By 2008, changed life circumstances had given me a reason to walk away. For the next five years I worked in marketing as a creative director and as chief creative officer for a medical animation studio. I enjoyed aspects of those roles, but I felt like my dad (the cartoonist in a banker’s suit). In 2013, I made a leap to freelance as a gag cartoonist for marketing agencies and anyone else who would hire me to draw. For a decade I drew hundreds of cartoons for hundreds of clients. I was drawing again, but I was not drawing MY cartoons or MY opinions, but someone else’s — just like my days at the Deseret News.
Return of the Prodigal
Donald Trump shocked the world by becoming President of the United States in 2016. By the end of his first term he had done so much damage to democracy that it was difficult to quantify just how much. Then came his insurrection on January 6, 2021. THEN came his reelection in 2024! And we hadn’t seen nothin’ like the destruction he immediately started that year. I was angry. I was determined to speak up. I reached for my brush and bottle of India ink and drew a couple of cartoons that only my followers on Instagram saw.
As fate would have it, it was around that time that I was on a Zoom call hosted by the National Cartoonists Society. I chatted with Daryl Cagle and a handful of other cartoonists. I hadn’t seen Daryl in 20 years and I don’t think he remembered me. We discussed an Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention that we attended in the ‘90s, and reminisced a bit. A few weeks later, Daryl suggested syndicating my work through Cagle Cartoons. I accepted, agreed to a contract, and began drawing political cartoons again. I was determined this time to draw according to my own opinions and not someone else’s.
A recent political cartoon about Congress’ inaction on Donald Trump’s multiple abuses of power.
The Resolve
Now in my 60s, I’m back doing what I set out to do in my youth. Turns out there IS a rewind button — in this case, my treasured Winsor-Newton brush and a bottle of India ink. Older and somewhat wiser, I am drawing the cartoons I couldn’t, or didn’t, draw years ago. Along the way, here on Substack, I’ll share new stuff, old stuff, cartoons I wish I hadn’t drawn, cartoons I should have drawn, and more!
My Substack Deal
The new cartoons are free, along with an occasional post from the archives. But if you want the full enchilada (see details in my Substack), you can pony up $8 a month. Keep in mind that a year’s subscription will save you $16. That’s like getting two months free — and what my Kentucky ancestors used to call “fair and square.” If you’d like to really back this work, there’s a founding-member option.