Al Goodwyn Retires
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Editorial cartoonist Al Goodwyn has announced that he’s “putting the pen and ink down.”
Today at his Al Goodwyn’s Political (a)Musings Substack Goodwyn announced his retirement:
After 37 years of cartooning, really a lifetime if you count the doodling, I’m putting the pen and ink down. My wife and I will be spending more time hitting the roads, the skies, the waterways, and the Airbnbs.
What started in 1989 as an attempt to sell a single cartoon turned into a long string of milestones, each of which I assumed would be the high-water mark of this silly pursuit…
In 1989 physicst Al Goodwyn scratched an itch and sent a cartoon to the Health Physics Society (HPS) newsletter. That led to a 28 years relationship with the magazine.
9 years of special interest gag cartooning and Goodwyn sent a political cartoon to his local paper which didn’t get printed (at least not right away). Not discouraged he submitted a few cartoons about some regional issues which did interest the editor and so began Goodwyn’s career as an editorial cartoonist for The Aiken Standard in 1997.
After a move in 2002 Goodwyn retired from editorial cartooning for the first time. That retirement which lasted for a decade and a half ended when his regular side gig with the HPS newsletter ended in 2018.
He once more took up political cartooning while retiring as a physicist. From a 2019 interview:
Fast forward to 2018, the physics publication notifies me that they are no longer going to use my cartoons. I decided then to pick back up on editorial cartoons (around the same time I also began considering my retirement options and activities, wondering if cartooning might be a worthy post-retirement activity). My work was picked up very quickly including cartoons for the Washington Examiner and even covers for the Examiner.
My ideal cartooning day starts with the content of five online newspapers including two national newspapers and two local Virginia newspapers, the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star and the Daily Press out of Hampton Roads (these are also two of the newspapers in Virginia that carry my work). The Aiken Standard picked me back up and I do cartoons on local issues for them.
The self-syndicated cartoonist soon signed with Creators Syndicate in 2020 and has been national ever since.
The Goodwyn biography at Muck Rack:
He began cartooning in 1989 when he put his physics education and technical experience to work for a physics publication, producing science-themed cartoons over the next 28 years. In 1997, he expanded into editorial cartoons for a local newspaper, the Aiken Standard (SC). Since then he has been widely featured and has won many editorial cartooning awards, most recently first place in the 2023 Green Eyeshade Awards for Editorial Cartoons in the southeast US.
Al signed on with Creators Syndicate in 2020 and produces four to five cartoons per week. His work leans to the conservative side but he often hits any side deserving to be skewered.
Goodwyn would occasionally bring his physics background into his political cartoons:
More Goodwyn:
A 1999 interview with The Health Physics Society Newsletter.
A 2020 interview with Michael Rhode of Comics DC.
The Al Goodwyn Association of American Editorial Cartoonists profile page.
A plethora of Goodwyn cartoons and illustrations at his homepage.
And a year and a half of his Substack (a)musings.
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