Eulogies for a Missing Friend – Steve Benson has Left Our World
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Some of Steve Benson‘s friends have written about him on the occasion of his passing.
From editorial cartoonist Jack Ohman, like Steve a former president of the AAEC:
I heard Steve Benson died yesterday, in the late afternoon, as I was about to go into the grocery store—the banal things we all do. The news stopped me in my tracks.
Steve was my friend, my peer, and, for awhile, my blood rival in the early 1980s. I mean bitter enemy, to be clear.
Back then, you see, Steve and I were “MacNelly Clones,” a group of young cartoonists who were influenced by the late Jeff MacNelly…
From political cartoonist Clay Jones:
Steve was a very conservative political cartoonist and a member of the Mormon hierarchy, as he was the grandson of Ezra Taft Benson, the President of the Mormon Church, who Steve claimed in 1993 was suffering from senility at the age of 93, and said the church was covering it up. Later, Steve left the church and somewhere along the way, started drawing liberal cartoons.
Steve becoming a liberal cartoonist is funny because, as Jack writes, there was a time when he was “personally in your face, 24/7, about how liberals sucked.”
As Steve wandered away from the church, his faith took a hit, and he became an atheist. He didn’t just become an atheist, he became the flag bearer for atheism.
Steve was a great guy, but I can’t say I always enjoyed talking to him.
Late2018/early 2019 was a tough time for Steve, any bright spots were mostly due to Claire Ferguson Benson.
Also:
From Arizona Mirror editor Jim Small:
For nearly five years, my job came with a perk that sometimes left me feeling like I needed to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming: I was the first person to see every new Steve Benson cartoon.
Growing up in Phoenix in the 1980s and 1990s, it’s no exaggeration to say that Steve Benson was a household name. His was the one name that most people would give if you asked them to name someone who worked at the Arizona Republic.
His work was as ubiquitous as it was powerful, and it not only sparked watercooler conversations in workplaces across the state, but it sometimes actually drove news cycles.
I still am in awe of the fact that I got to call Steve a colleague and a friend, and that he so eagerly let me not only peek under the hood of his creative process, but become a part of it.
We would talk multiple times a day as he refined his ideas and drafted his twice-weekly cartoons for the Arizona Mirror…
From editorial cartoonist Chris Britt:
I had an opportunity to draw this tribute cartoon for Steve Benson. It ran in the Arizona Mirror this morning. Steve provided two cartoons a week to the mirror over the last 5-6 years. Steve was my mentor, but most importantly … he became one of my best friends. I loved him and I will miss him.
From Arizona Republic columnist EJ Montini (or here):
Steve Benson was the whitest white person I had ever come across.
That’s what I told my friends back east.
Benson, who died this week at 71, started at The Arizona Republic a few months after I did in 1980.
He was a buttoned-up, short-sleeved, necktie-wearing Mormon (the first one I’d ever met), and I was a black T-shirt, blue jeans, moustache and shaggy-haired steelworker’s kid from Pittsburgh (the first one he’d ever met).
Neither one of us could decide which of us was from another planet, and we argued about that until we finally figured out the answer:
We both were.
From editorial cartoonist and comic strip artist Jeff Parker:
When I was a fledgling editorial cartoonist back in the late 80s, early 90s, Steve Benson was one of the titan edtoonists at the time, and a major inspiration for me. Steve was also the first ‘big name’ to approach and greet me, he immediately made me feel like one of the tribe at my first AAEC convention. For such a mad bomber with pen and ink, he was the nicest of guys.
A 1991 example of Steve’s “mad bomber” tendencies:
Good friend and fellow Arizona editorial cartoonist David Fitzsimmons writes a love letter to Steve:
Dear Steve,
Few things in life bring a political cartoonist greater joy than hate mail. I know Steve, that you loved provoking rage from the unhinged as much as I did.
As much as you loved the hate, vitriol and sputtering rage your cartoons would provoke there’s none in here for you today my brother. Forgive me for loving you, buddy.
I loved your courage.
I loved your principled character.
I loved your love for the American idea, a passion that compelled you day after day to defend the values you admired. Compassion. Kindness. Charity. Justice. Fairness. Truth.These values were intrinsic.
I loved your art.
Your brushwork rivaled the greatest masters.
Your penmanship was exquisite.
And your concepts! Peerless. You had an “exploding duck theory” about cartooning. Remember? You told me once every cartoon should have a visual surprise, a startling twist or it’s just not a good cartoon.
What?
You know…an exploding duck…
Steve Benson has left our world, but remains in our hearts.
feature image photo by Tom Tingle/Arizona Republic
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