Pat Oliphant RIP - photos by Bruce Guthrie

 by Bruce Guthrie 

Pat Oliphant died yesterday.  Over the years, I saw him a fair amount, usually with Richard Thompson.  

Richard and I had attended Art Wood's Great Cartoonist series at the Smithsonian back in 1983, but I wasn't taking photos then.

The next time I saw him was when I ran into Art and he said Richard and Pat and KAL were doing an exhibit together at Pat's wife Susan Conway's gallery in Georgetown.  That was in 1998 and that was my first time to meet Amy Thompson and Charlotte, their first child.

When Pat was at Politics and Prose back in 2007, Hunter "Patch" Adams came in blue hair and a clown costume. 

When Pat and Richard were both at San Diego Comic-Con in 2009 (the year that Richard announced he had Parkinson's), I attended Pat's panel.  I was sitting next to Susan Conway and Pat was talking about his career, showing slides of some of his cartoons, and then doing random drawings.  When he drew Monica Lewinski giving Bill Clinton fellatio or Sarah Palin getting rear-ended by a moose, Susan just covered her eyes in mock embarrassment.  

The last time I saw him was in 2018 when he came for the White House Historical Association book fair.

He'll be missed!

Some pics over the years.  

with Joe Sutliff

with Al Goodwyn

with Ann Telnaes

with Richard Thompson

with Ann Telnaes, Clay Bennett, and Matt Davies

with Rick Banning and Patch Adams

with Mike Rhode

Bill Clinton

Sarah Palin

with Richard Thompson and KAL

--

Bruce Guthrie
Photo obsessive
http://www.bguthriephotos.com

Comic Art of the National Press Club

 I was lucky enough to be invited to lunch with Herblock winner Jack Ohman, and took some shots of the cartoons that are permanently on the National Press Club's The Reliable Source restaurant.

 These aren't visible to the general public unfortunately. Better captioning comic soon...

  

Jack Ohman, 2026 Herblock prize winner and NPC president Mark Schoeff Jr.in front of Jack's cartoons

The Wizard of Id by Parker and Hart

Snuffy Smith by Fred Laswell

Dick Tracy by Chester Gould

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "Warehouse Plans"

"Warehouse Plans"
https://sinkers.org/stage/?p=4255

If you're the kind of person who's up to their goddamn neck with seeing
millions impoverished and immiserated by capitalism (and I know I am)
the news of the rash of warehouse arsons a couple of weeks back –
including a $600m whomper in California – put a smile on your face.

As luck would have it, however, Trump's blockade of the Iraninan
blockade of the Strait Of Hormuz (you're it, no tagbacks!) is pushing
gasoline prices higher by the day, meaning that simple arson may soon be
out of reach of your average pissed-off working-class wage slave.

So, as any good revolutionary would do – adapt!


___________________________________________________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Political Cartoons: dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

Wuerker at work

 Matt Wuerker is the cartoonist at Politico and has been since the very beginning. It's based in my town, but I'd never visited the newsroom. During the government shutdown, Matt invited me to come by. With his permission, here's some photos.

 

Politico is in an office building in Rosslyn and you have to travel through what Matt jokingly called 'The Biosphere' to get to the office area.

This wall of cartoons, essentially 3 giant stickers was created about 11 years ago when they moved into this office.

Here's a photo for scale.

Here's the only Trump cartoon, from the 2015 primaries.

Matt says there are plans to update the wall with newer cartoons.

 

He sits at the back of the newsroom with his artist's desk and watercolors

 

He still draws and paints by hand, and only does some effects digitally.

 

 

 

He's got a few personal touches including a certificate for being an original Politico member (on the pillar) and some cartoonist histories.

 

 

He was finishing up a drawing and doing the lettering separately to drop it in with Photoshop.

 

 

The finished cartoon on his Instagram feed.

A table of original art sits on the far side of his cubicle for his coworkers and visitors to look through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of his favorite cartoons of 2025.

 Like many single-panel cartoonists, Matt would like to be published in the New Yorker, and submits some works to them regularly. So far, the acceptance call hasn't come through, although he's won most of the editorial cartooning awards including the Berryman award last week. 

 

Three 1943 cartoons from Ameri-Topics, a newspaper for Amertorp torpedo manufacturer

This is off-topic, but provided by ComicsDC supporter Randy T from some family clippings. And it's cool.

These cartoons are from Ameri-Topics, a bi-weekly newspaper for Amertorp torpedo manufacturer in St. Louise, from August 18, 1943. The cover says "Published in the interest of the employees of Amertorp." Obviously they relate to World War II. 

One is a WWII political cartoon by Fitzgerald. Another is by Rinaldi. There is a strip called Lena and Louie Amertwerp by C.R. Schwartz, which deals with safety in using forklifts. 

"Axis Co-operation" by Fitzgerald in "The Charge"

Lena and Louie Amertwerp by C.R. Schwartz

 

 

"Forward Passer De Luxe" by Rinaldi in the Hole

 

@arlingtonaf at Columbia Pike Farmer's Market

 

Wilson R. set up today at Columbia Pike Farmer's Market. Arlnow just ran a good profile of him at https://www.arlnow.com/2025/07/31/local-artist-launches-satirical-zine-and-street-studio-pop-up-in-clarendon/ so read that for background. I'd note that his take on Trump and the Virginia flag is classic political cartooning. Local cartoonist Christiann MacAuley contributed a Sticky Comics strip to the zine he's doing. He's selling zines, prints, and stickers. Note his mobile art studio is a bicycle.

Note the sticker version of the Virginia flag cartoon, which was originally a poster.