Editorial Cartoonist Pat Oliphant Receives Inkpot Award

By: E&P Staff Venerable editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant was one of the recipients of the 2009 Inkpot Award at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.

Comic-Con International has bestowed the Inkpot Awards since 1974. They are achievement awards given to special Comic-Con guests as well as members of Comic-Con's committee and Board of Directors.

At this year's Comic-Con, Oliphant was the subject of a special panel "Spotlight on Oliphant," where the cartoonist demonstrated his drawing technique in front of a live audience. While doing this, he was interviewed by Harry Katz, former Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Library of Congress, which holds many of Oliphant's works in its permanent collection.

Born in Adelaide, Australia, Oliphant began his cartooning career in 1955, and moved to the U.S. nine years later. He first worked as a cartoonist at The Denver Post -- where he won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning -- and then joined the Washington Star, where he drew cartoons until 1981, when the paper folded. His cartoons have been syndicated by Universal Uclick since 1980.