Pat Oliphant

Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant (b. July 24, 1934 in Adelaide, Australia) is the most widely syndicated political cartoonist in the world, described by the New York Times as "the most influential cartoonist now working". His trademark is a small penguin character named Punk, who is often seen making a sarcastic comment about the subject of the panel.

Oliphant's career, which spans over fifty years, began in 1952 as a copyboy with the "Adelaide News". He continued in the newspaper business in Australia until he emigrated to the United States in 1964.

Once in the U.S., he first worked at "The Denver Post". His strip was nationally syndicated and internationally syndicated in 1965. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1967 for his February 1, 1966 cartoon "They Won't Get Us To The Conference Table . . . Will They?". Oliphant moved to the now defunct "Washington Star" for six years, until the paper folded in 1981.

Oliphant's work, which from time to time employs ethnic caricatures, has occasionally been criticized. In 2001, the Asian American Journalists Association accused Oliphant of "cross [ing] the line from acerbic depiction to racial caricature" [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/04/14/MN225028.DTL] . In 2005, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee expressed concern that some of Oliphant's caricatures were racist and misleading [http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=2415] . In 2007, two Oliphant cartoons produced a similar response [http://www.aaja.org/headliners/2007_07_27_01/] .

Oliphant's work has appeared in several exhibitions, most notably at the National Portrait Gallery. He has also crafted a series of small sculptures based on his caricatures of various political figures, which have been displayed alongside his drawings in some exhibitions.

In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize, Oliphant won the National Cartoonist Society Editorial Cartoon Award seven times in 1971, 1973, 1974, 1984, 1989, 1990, and 1991, the Reuben Award twice in 1968 and 1972 and the Thomas Nast Prize.

Oliphant is the nephew of Sir Mark Oliphant, the Australian physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project during WW II, and later became Governor of South Australia.

Collections

Chronological list:

* "Four More Years when he died"
* "An Informal Gathering"
* "Oliphant!: A cartoon collection"
* "The Jellybean Society: A cartoon collection"
* "Ban This Book"
* "But Seriously, Folks!"
* "The Year of Living Perilously: More Cartoons"
* "Make the Day!"
* "Between Rock and a Hard Place"
* "Up to There in Alligators: More Cartoons"
* "Nothing Basically Wrong"
* "What Those People Need Is a Puppy!: More Cartoons"
* "Fashions for the New World Order: More Cartoons"
* "Just Say No!: More Cartoons by Pat Oliphant"
* "Why Do I Feel Uneasy?: More Cartoons"
* "Oliphant: The New World Order in Drawing and Sculpture 1983-1993"
* "Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop... More Cartoons by Pat Oliphant: More Cartoons"
* "Off to the Revolution: More Cartoons"
* "Reaffirm the Status Quo!: More Cartoons"
* "So That's Where They Came From!"
* "Oliphant's Anthem: Pat Oliphant at the Library of Congress"
* "Are We There Yet?"
* "Now We're Going To Have To Spray For Politicians"
* "When We Can't See The Forest For The Bushes"

External links

* [http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/oliphant/vc007224.jpgOliphant's Pulitzer Prize winning cartoon]
* [http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/oliphant/oliphant.html "Oliphant's Anthem", Library of Congress exhibit]
* [http://www.ucomics.com/patoliphant/ Official site] at Universal Press Syndicate
* [http://www.reuben.org/ncs/awards.asp NCS Awards]