'Shoe'.
Gary Brookins is a cartoonist and painter living in Richmond, Virginia. Originally from Florida, he received a BA degree in Studio Art from the University of West Florida. Since January 1979, he had a long career as a syndicated political cartoonist with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He began working with Jeff MacNelly in the 1990s. He took over MacNelly's one-panel feature 'Pluggers' in 1999 and also started working with MacNelly and Chris Cassatt on 'Shoe' in 1999.
When Jeff MacNelly passed away in 2000, Brookins continued to work on 'Shoe' with Cassatt and Susie MacNelly. Since Chris Cassatt's death in 2013, he was the sole artist to continue the feature. 'Pluggers' is also still syndicated by Tribune Media Services to about 75 newspapers nationwide. In September 2020, Brookins retired from his daily comic activities, passing 'Shoe' to Ben Lansing and 'Pluggers' to Rick McKee. He kept drawing the Sunday comic pages, though, until fully retiring on 22 January 2023.
'Pluggers'.