Comments on: Editorial cartoonist Draper Hill, dead at 73

By: michael grniet

michael grniet — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:19:29 +0000

I just learned through the internet of Drapers death and I am very sorry because he spent time in my bookshop in Worcester all the years he woked at the Telegram. He and I exchaned cartoons for books and historical Thomas Nast mateial. I also have orginal manuscript pages for his Gillray book.When I was hospitalized with ulcers he a get well card.

By: Jon Hill

Jon Hill — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:31:01 +0000

I am Draper’s son. You all are class acts. I truly appreciate the sentiments about my Dad. Best wishes and luck in keeping the integrity of your profession.

Jon Hill

By: Gottfried (Geoff) Brieger

Gottfried (Geoff) Brieger — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:55:55 +0000

Draper was an exceptionally fine human being, my friend, and college classmate. In his memory, I would like to share a brief verse I wrote to him seven years ago.

“Ah, Draper rides again to pierce
The pompous, pious, and the fierce.
Pen poised, he begs us, look again
At windmills clanking in the plain”

By: Stanley D. Williams, PhD

Stanley D. Williams, PhD — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:26:47 +0000

Tim Benson. I just talked with Sarah and can put you in touch with her, although her voice is thin after years of difficultly with her throat. Email me sdw@stanwilliams.com

By: Stanley D. Williams, PhD

Stanley D. Williams, PhD — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:23:46 +0000

I was editor and project coordinator on a book Draper collaborated on with Sonny Eliot (see web link) that was published in 2007. The publication includes a CD interview with Draper that I edited down from a video I shot of him….for the audio. A great artist and always striving to do better and educate us all about history.

By: Tim Benson

Tim Benson — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:48:49 +0000

Very sad to hear this just as my book on Leslie Illingworth was published. Illingworth was a great cartoonist and friend of Draper’s and I’m very sad he did not live to see it. Can anyone put me in touch with Sarah his widow so I can offer my condolences?

Dr Tim Benson

By: Craig Janson

Craig Janson — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:23:50 +0000

I’ve always had a love of political cartoons and never missed one of Draper’s in The Detroit News. He had a amazing way of bring out his subjects personality.

The first time I met him was at a talk he gave at the Scarab Club in Detroit. And it was there that I had the opportunity to purchase one of his cartoons. It’s a work of art I’ll always cherish.

Detroit and the Political Cartoon world have lost a good man.

By: Bob Englehart

Bob Englehart — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:57:39 +0000

How sad and too soon. Draper was so helpful and encouraging to me when I was first starting out and throughout my career. He was a great guy and a great cartoonist.

By: Phil Hands

Phil Hands — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:23:41 +0000

This is truly sad news. Draper was my cartoon mentor, and the guy who encouraged me to get into this crazy profession. Like Terry, I met Draper through a friend of a friend and he took me under his wing and showed me the ropes of the world of editorial cartoonists.

He invited me to my first cartooning convention at OSU, shortly after we met, and sneaked me into exclusive luncheons, with the big wigs like Wil Eisner and Art Spiegleman.

Draper and I both lived in Grosse Pointe, a suburb of Detroit. My first gig drawing cartoons was for the Grosse Pointe News, the small weekly publication whose primary audience was widows over 70. Draper faithfully followed my work and was never afraid of offering blistering criticism early on, and eventually honest praise for my cartoons.

We often had breakfast together at his house to discuss editorial cartoons and current events. It was nice to have someone look at your work, and tell you to your face that a cartoon was utter shit, but then turn around and point out the strong points of the next one.

His house was a shrine to the art of cartooning, and he had several hundreds, if not thousands, of original cartoons hanging on every usable inch of wall space in his home. (You can tell a guy has a lot of cartoons when he’s forced to hang a Winsor McCay original in his back stairwell).

I’m honored to say that even a couple of my cartoons made it up one his walls over the years.

I have since moved out to Wisconsin, and we haven’t spoken much since, a fact that I now regret.

Thanks for everything Draper and my deepest condolences to your family.

By: Terry LaBan

Terry LaBan — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:49:29 +0000

Draper Hill was probably the first real cartoonist I ever met. I was just out of college at the University of Michigan, and had started freelancing political cartoons on local topics for the late, lamented Ann Arbor News and my parents, who knew someone who knew someone, gave me his number. I called him and he invited me to lunch downtown. I met him at his office at the Detroit News, which was festooned with original cartoon art and we went to a burger joint around the corner. I brought samples of my work and he was very kind and encouraging; he also offered me valuable criticism and advice. The lunches became a regular thing and I continued meeting with him until I moved a few years later to Chicago. Draper was probably the closest thing I had to a cartoon mentor. Though I didn’t ultimately pursue a career as a political cartoonist(thank god), his support was very important and appreciated at that time, when I was just starting out, and I still have several of his originals. It’s been awhile since we’ve been in touch, but I’ll never forget Draper and I’ll always be grateful for his generosity and attention.