Paul Conrad

05 September 2010 |permalink | email article

The death Saturday of Conrad, 86, a political cartoonist who for more than half a century used a sharp pen in simple pen-and-ink drawings to spare no public figures and expose pomposity, will be remembered as an iconic presence in editorial journalism. 

For sixty years his cartoons, first in The Denver Post and later in The Los Angeles Times from 1964 to 1993, won three Pulitzer Prizes and delighted or angered readers. Either way his pen had high impact and immediate shock effect.

“No one has ever accused me of being objective,” said Conrad, a Democrat with liberal leanings who delighted in attacking Republicans but never spared members of his own party. His work often smacked of humor but had a kind of seriousness that other cartoonists lacked. As a former journalist who knew him I found his work in exposing deception and social injustice admirable aspects of his strong Catholic faith.

The New York Times obit described Conrad as in the tradition of Thomas Nast, whose caricatures hounded a corrupt Boss Tweed from power in New York in the 19th century, and the renowned Herbert R. (Herb) Block of The Washington Post. “Wars, elections, scandals, the legerdemain of politicians and shenanigans of charlatans – were all grist for the Conrad Truth Machine, a movable feast.”

As narrator in a PBS documentary special on Conrad, Tom Brokaw said: “Every line he draws cries out to the powers that be, “We’re be watching you.” 

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