Chuck Asay retires

Chuck Asay retires

Chuck Asay retired from The Gazette back in 2007, but continued to draw his syndicated editorial cartoons. The Gazette announced yesterday that he is stepping away from the drawing board completely. Above was his last cartoon.

From Wayne Laugesen, his editor:

Chuck skewered the left and held nothing back. He wasn’t polite. He wasn’t safe. He never cowered in fear. Syndicates and editors knew he filled a niche, even if they didn’t quite know why.

Chuck was never in this for money, though it was his livelihood. He wasn’t drawing to gain affection of an audience. Chuck used the talent God gave him to state and defend truth as he understood it. The Bible and Constitution were his guides. He opposed abortion and same-sex marriage, and there was no sense mincing images or words to soften a message for those who didn’t want to hear it.

7 thoughts on “Chuck Asay retires

  1. Chuck is one of the most under rated cartoonists working. His ideals shown in every cartoon. Whether you agreed with him or not the power of his work was unmistakable. He also did something he gets very little credit for; he was an altie before alties were cool. Using multi-panels to tell a narrative was not used and still is not used widely by most editorial cartoonists. Chuck used it very effectively. It’s the reason in recent posts on his blog Matt Bors could sit and drink and chat with Chuck at the recent AAEC convention. They are more alike than you think and share a direct lineage.

    Your work will be missed, Chuck. God speed in all of your future endeavors.

  2. Having lived much of my life in Colorado Springs, I have thought of Chuck as the journalistic “voice of Colorado Springs” from both his work at the Sun and the Gazette. No one else comes close. What a great gentleman. I will miss the liberal lady in the polka dot dress and the donkeys running around in suits. Thanks, Chuck.

  3. Chuck and I go way back….I mean WAY back before either one of us were cartooning professionally. During my last year of college, Chuck was a featured part of an arts festival on campus where he was doing caricatures. At the time was was an art teacher in local schools. Just so happened my college was also Chuck’s alma mater plus we both had had the same art teachers. I believe they made sure Chuck was there for me as I had been drawing cartoons for the school paper for years. Chuck drew a caricature of me and my girlfriend while I asked him all kind of questions about cartooning. He was very informative and shared everything he knew. After the festival ended I didn’t think I would ever see him again….but at least I had a great caricature by one of the really good ones. Surprisingly, just six years later we bumped into each other at the AAEC convention in SF’82 as working cartoonists…..and have been colleagues ever since. As Scott shared, Chuck is one of the most under rated cartoonists ever. Even though we are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, I applaud his unmistakable cartooning voice and talents. I also THANK him for all the support and friendship over these past decades. Congratulations Chuck

  4. Dear Mr. Asay,

    I recently purchased a watercolor that I believe is an original signed ASAY 79. The painting is of two old codgers driving a wagon down a dirt road and in the back of the wagon is a printing press. In the background is mountains. I love this painting and I was directed to you by Roger Asay to determine if you are the artist and to request of you some information on you and the painting.

    Sincerely,

    Sally Shupack

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