Cartoon, 11 October 2006.
Bob Englehart is a U.S. editorial cartoonist. He was the house cartoonist of The Journal-Herald (1975-1980) and The Hartford Courant (1980-2015). Apart from political cartoons, he also created the short-lived gag comic 'Stuck' (2015-2016).
Early life
Robert Englehart Jr. was born in 1945 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His parents went through several divorces and remarriages. Back in the day, this gave Robert and his brother Tim a social stigma, since divorce was still considered a disgrace in society. Another traumatic event occurred when Englehart fell ill with rheumatic fever and was bedridden for a year. The boy could do little else than watch TV, read and draw. But it did provide him with a lifelong passion for cartooning. Among his graphic influences in the field of painting are Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet and Norman Rockwell. He ranks Jim Borgman, Paul Coker, Jeff MacNelly, Bill Mauldin, Doug Marlette, Pat Oliphant, Mike Peters, Wayne Stayskal and Mort Walker among his favorite cartoonists. Between 1964 and 1966, Englehart studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, but dropped out.
Cartoon by Bob Englehart, 1980s.
Cartooning career
In 1966, Englehart's earliest cartoons appeared in Chicago Today. Shortly afterwards, later he returned to Fort Wayne, where he established his own studio. He became a freelance cartoonist for The Journal-Gazette and from August 1975 until November 1980 his editorial cartoons ran in The Journal-Herald of Dayton, Ohio. On 15 December 1980, he became the editorial cartoonist of The Hartford Courant. He stayed with this paper until he was bought-out from his staff position on 25 November 2015. Since that date, he is a freelance editorial cartoonist, syndicated by Caglecartoons.com. Cartoons by Bob Englehart have appeared in magazines like Hustler, The New York Times, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Time and USA Today.
'Stuck'.
Stuck
In his freelance days, Bob Englehart also submitted several ideas for weekly comic strips, which were all rejected. Out of frustration, the cartoonist created a series of vertical comic strips with simple stick figures. Much to Englehart's surprise, this concept was instantly accepted. His comic strip 'Stuck' (2015-2016) was made directly for publication on smart phone devices, and appeared irregularly. On his own website, Englehart devoted a comic strip about the development of this unusual strip, titled 'The Sage Of Another Guy Named Bob'.
TV career
In 1988, Englehart and his wife Pat McGrath created a humorous weekly segment on Connecticut Public Television. Between 1992 and 1996, Englehart's sports cartoons were featured on the Sunday morning shows of the ESPN network. He also drew caricatures of sports figures for ESPN's NFL Prime Monday show. Another regular TV spot was 'Facetime With Bob Englehart' on FoxCT WTIC-TV.
'When Does Life Begin?' (1981), cartoon by Bob Englehart.
Controversy
Like many political cartoonists, Englehart occasionally experienced censorship and controversy. Some of his cartoons were rejected by his editors over the times. But the biggest scandal had nothing to do with his drawings, but with a quote from his blog. On 10 February 2012, Englehart criticized governor of Connecticut Dannel Malloy, who proposed funding for early childhood education and poorer school districts. On his blog, the cartoonist stated that he supported the initiative, though felt that dysfunctional inner-city poor minority families were the core of the problem. In his opinion, nothing would be changed unless this was tackled. He concluded: "Sure, we hear of an occasional winner come out of the ghetto. Movie stars, athletes, business people, we know their stories, but they are the very rare exception. For the most part, losers raise losers." This blunt comment received such a backlash from readers that The Hartford Courant suspended him for a week without pay. The post was removed and Englehart posted an apology. In May 2012, Malloy's education reform bill was unanimously passed by the Connecticut House of Representatives.
On 30 June 2015, Englehart found himself in the center of another controversy, though not by his own making. The Southern Poverty Law Center reposted a sequential cartoon by Englehart, published on 22 June 2015, depicting The Confederate Flag being lowered down and replaced with the Rainbow Flag of the LGBT community. However, this was a plagiarized and altered version of Englehart's original cartoon, which only shows the Confederate Flag being lowered. The Southern Poverty Law Center had taken the image from Twitter, without double-checking its origins. They officially apologized for their mistake. This wasn't the first time that Englehart was plagiarized, though. On 11 November 2005, his 1981 cartoon 'When Does Life Begin?' was copied almost in full by cartoonist Dave Simpson. It cost Simpson his job with The Tulsa World.
Bob Englehart cartoon featuring U.S. President Barack Obama, 7 September 2011.
Recognition
In 1980, Englehart was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, but lost to Don Wright. Eight years later he and his wife, Pat McGrath, won two New England Emmy Awards (1988) for their humorous weekly segment on Connecticut Public Television. He won the H.L. Mencken Award and the President's Medal from Southern Connecticut State. Between 23 October and 28 November 2015, his cartoons were exhibited under the title 'Drawn and Cornered: 35 Years of Engelhart Cartoons' in the Connecticut Historical Society.
Recent years
In the fall of 2017, Bob Englehart worked as adjunct professor at the Eastern Connecticut State University, where he taught the course "Cartoons in American Society". Englehart is also active at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut.
Books about Bob Englehart
In 2014, Englehart published his memoir, 'Trackrat: Memoir Of A Fan' through the CreateSpace on-demand publishing platform. The work is a partial autobiography, a homage to race car driving and a eulogy to driver Shane Hammond, whose tragic death on the track in 2008 was witnessed by Englehart.
'The Sage Of Another Guy Named Bob'.