As a DMV native and news junkie of a certain age, I was bummed to learn that Pat Oliphant passed yesterday at the age of 91. For my (meager) money, Oliphant was nothing less than the greatest political cartoonist to ever smudge his hands in acerbic ink. He skewered politicians off all stripes and reserved some of his sharpest barbs for the hypocrisy of the Catholic church.
In reading more about him, I learned that there's a recently-made documentary about his life and career entitled A Savage Art. And so now I've got one more thing to watch.
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those are great-- i feel like my cartoon consumption, political and otherwise, really nosedived once I stopped reading a print version of the paper and stopped getting The New Yorker. after a hiatus, i did recently re-subscribe to "the week" in paper format, and that has a political cartoon section-- i really miss having magazines and newspapers lying around the house for desultory reading . . .
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dave, political cartoons done as well as this Hall of Famer did them are an excellent sliver of print journalism that's much missed.
ReplyDeleteDave himself used to draw cartoons in college Calculus class and such. Pretty well, as I recall. I mean, I recall the cartoons better than I recall the Calculus, which... well, let's simply say that the professor informed me with a week or two left in the semester that there would be no need for me to take the final. Skiddit.
If asked to predict which Gheorghies regularly participate in the New Yorker captions contest I would've guessed Dave and Whit. You can find this stuff online if you go looking.
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