Pat Oliphant – A Eulogy (Part 3)
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The death of Pat Oliphant brought immediate tributes from friends and colleagues. Those very early first responses have been followed with an astounding amount of words or pictures or both honoring the master of editorial cartooning. An outpouring of respect, appreciation, and love unseen since the passing of Charles Schulz.
Michael de Adder brought a smattering of Oliphant cartoons with his thoughts:
Pat Oliphant (1935–2025) was widely regarded as one of the greatest editorial cartoonists of the modern era… his razor-sharp wit, fearless political satire, and extraordinary drawing skills made him a giant in American journalism.
He was arguably one of, if not the greatest, editorial cartoonists to draw for an American newspaper. He combined beautiful line work with a rapier wit that left those he drew about in pieces on the ground… I have always admired the looseness of his linework…he is a master of motion…every drawing he did is a master class.
Pat Oliphant has died. For decades he was among the most prolific and widely-published political artists in America. You should pull up his work. He was so good he won a Pulitzer Prize when he tried not to. He used his immense talent to speak truth to power, fearlessly… The hedge funds and corporations who own today’s newspapers would never give him a job today, and we are all the worse for it.
Lest you think they waited for Pat’s death to praise him here’s Christopher Weyant from 8 years ago on Oliphant and the above cartoon:
It was there I stumbled upon a small collection of Oliphant’s work… I fell in love…
But then Pat Oliphant created what I consider to be one of the greatest editorial cartoons of the last hundred years. Simple in its execution, it shows a tattered, embattled Uncle Sam, a reference to a cartoon he drew the day after the 9/11 attacks, but this time, Uncle Sam, sleeves rolled up, holds the sword of war, ready to swing. Behind him, a small, vulnerable child with an American flag stands watching as Uncle Sam says, “Watch out for the backswing, kid.”
What seems to be a gentle critique is actually a somber, profound, and prescient warning on what we were about to unleash. Oliphant found the perfect balance of tone and voice.
Jonathan Brown on the Oliphant influence:
[The mayor] stormed into Gail Stahle’s office—the Clipper’s publisher—demanding that my cartoons of him be stopped.
I liked that.
I felt a little bit like Oliphant that day who once said: “Satire is a way of holding power accountable when polite conversation fails.”
It would be difficult today to add much new to the many eloquent and sincere tributes to our late friend and colleague Pat Oliphant, the giant of American political cartooning who died Monday at age 91. He was a unique figure in our trade, an Aussie immigrant who burst on the moribund scene of American newspaper cartooning and turned it into a new, fresh and powerful force through three or four turbulent decades.
Pat Oliphant, one of the world’s best political cartoonists, has died at 90. Pat and I became friends when he moved to Washington, DC in 1975. Among his fellow cartoonists, most of whom were wickedly good at their job, he was in a league of his own. When photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams died in 1984, Oliphant reflected Ansel’s view of President Reagan quite accurately. He gave me the original with the admonition written in the lower right (“don’t give this one away!). In my defense the previous Ansel cartoon he drew I gave to Ansel! …
The next day I arrived at the Denver Post and met with him. He was so kind and gave me an original cartoon. I in turn delivered his joint, which he put in his desk drawer. He then invited me to his house that evening. I arrived and stayed past midnight, talking cartooning and hearing his wild tales. Along with dinner, lots of wine, and sharing that joint, I blissfully departed.
I saw him a dozen times after that and he was alway gracious. He often gave me moral support when times were tough.
I will painfully miss him and I cherish those times with him.
Pat Oliphant has died at the age of 90.
Oliphant is one of the reasons I got into editorial cartooning.
He was a genius, in both his illustrative style as well as his biting wit…
Tim (no relation) Oliphant on Pat’s kindness:
…he was very nice to me and very gracious. I told him I had his latest book and he offered to sign it for me at the going away brunch. For some reason he didn’t show up. When I got home I wrote him a thank you note just expressing what a kick it was to meet him and to thank him for the time he spent with me and that I was sorry I didn’t see him at the brunch.
Well, much to my delight and surprise a few days later I received that book in the mail signed by Pat with a nice note along with. his signature. My point is; some might look at this as a very small thing and not a big deal. But to me it was a big deal. I was just a newbie kid. He was busy. He was famous. He had obligations. I felt like he was something and I was not. Pat didn’t have to send me the book. But he did. He could have just ignored me and my note. He wasn’t required to do anything for me. But he did, and this little act of consideration is something I still remember in great detail some forty years after the fact.
Jeff Koterba and some Oliphant originals:
…one of the great inksligners… he essentially upended and forever would influence American editorial cartoonists, including yours truly… There was—and is—something magical in his lines. That je ne sais quoi… Oliphant’s use of white space and solid black, not to mention, the juxtaposition of big and small, was exquisite…
The Gerald R. Ford Museum shows some class:
We are saddened by the passing of Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Pat Oliphant, whose prolific career spanned sixty years, covering the presidencies of Lyndon B. Johnson through Barack Obama.
To explore more cartoons from Oliphant, visit https://ford.artifacts.archives.gov/search/Oliphant
Bryan McKenzie at the University of Virginia:
“Pat Oliphant was Alexander Pope with a paintbrush, a master of the mock heroic, piercing pomposity with a few swift strokes,” said Ken Hughes, a Miller Center research specialist in the White House … Oliphant spared no president or politician, including presidents Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In most cartoons, Oliphant drew a tiny trademark penguin, named Punk, in a corner with some added commentary.
During a 2009 “Conversation with Pat Oliphant” at the Miller Center, Oliphant said he had a tinge of regret about how he drew former U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, who ran unsuccessfully for president.
“For a long time, I was drawing Bob Dole as Dracula,” Oliphant said. “He was billed as a man with no sense of humor and humorless, but as a matter of fact, he had a great sense of humor, a very funny man. I regret drawing him like that. Well, there’s not much regret.”
Lee Judge on the cartooning environment Pat Oliphant entered when he came to the U.S.:
Oliphant arrives in the US of A, but his influences are Australian and English and he’s drawing in a horizontal format which is better for depicting movement. His political cartoons look a lot more fun and lively and everybody loves the new approach. Eventually Pat’s syndicated in over 500 newspapers.
Oliphant’s a Big Deal and every newspaper wants somebody who draws like him.
Steve Greenberg tells The Daily Cartoonist: “I felt I needed to use bits of real Oliphant cartoons since I could
never draw like him (but I drew the brush and Punk myself).”
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