Jeff Darcy Retires
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Jeff Darcy, who has been an editorial cartoonist at The Cleveland Plain Dealer for 33 years, is retiring.
From today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer is Jeff’s message to his fellow PD staffers:
After nearly 40 years producing Editorial Cartoons for Cleveland newspapers, the last 32 with The Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com, I’m sorry to say, “So long,” as I’ll be signing off with Sunday’s post. My doctors can confirm it is NOT due to Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Every year when I’d be invited to speak at schools, I’d tell the students I had a team of great gag writers working for me — from Jimmy Dimora to Donald Trump, to Bill and Hillary … that the cartoons created themselves.
The cartooning bug bit Darcy in high school where he contributed to the school newspaper and continued in college drawing cartoons for University of Dayton’s student paper.
From a 1999 Crain’s Cleveland Business profile:
After college, Mr. Darcy returned to the Cleveland area with the idea that “maybe (he) could do something” with his drawing.
So Mr. Darcy began freelancing cartoons to local publications, such as the now-defunct Cleveland Edition, Sun Newspapers and The Free Times. But the big chance came in 1992, when The Plain Dealer conducted a nationwide search to replace retiring editorial cartoonist Ray Osrin.
“I thought, ‘Why not try it?'” Mr. Darcy said. “I took four or five ideas to (Plain Dealer editorial director) Brent Larkin, and he liked them and hired me.”
(Cleveland area resident Demjanjuk was a former Nazi death camp guard.)
The first Jeff Darcy cartoons for The Plain Dealer (PD) was in June 1992 when regular cartoonist Ray Osrin took some time off. When Osrin returned Darcy stayed on as editorial cartoonist on Osrin’s days off and as a staff illustrator for the PD.
Ray Osrin retired the following year and Jeff, after being the backup, became the starter on April 5, 1993.
In 2013 Jeff was named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning.
Now Darcy is retiring, thinning the already depleted gaggle of staff editorial cartoonists.
Jeff leaves an essay paying tribute to his PD predecessors:
What has been a sunshine weekend seems fitting to shine light on my three predecessors as the primary Editorial cartoonist for The Plain Dealer, James Donahey, Edward Kuekes and Ray Osrin, with this post showing some of their original work from my collection, with some added extras at the end.
Jeff’s final message, and an autobiography and a gallery, to his PD fans and readers:
CLEVELAND, Ohio — As only the fourth primary Editorial cartoonist in The Plain Dealer’s long history, and the first for Cleveland.com, I’ve decided to step away after spending nearly 40 years producing Editorial cartoons for Cleveland newspapers, the last 32 for The Plain Dealer…
We wish Jeff all the best for his future endeavors.
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