Cartoon by Pat Oliphant.
Pat Oliphant may be the most influential editorial cartoonist since Thomas Nast, who is, for all practical purposes, the father of American political cartooning. He won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1966, just two years after he left his native Australia for an American career. Now, thirty years later, he is considered among the most gifted practitioners in the history of the profession. He has caricatured eight United States presidents, from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, and offers provocative graphic commentary on salient social and political issues of the past three decades, including Watergate, Vietnam, the collapse of communism in Europe, and the Gulf War. Few artists have done so much to influence the form and content of contemporary American political cartoons.
Pat Oliphant was a strong influence on Berkeley Breathed, Martin Brown, Bob Englehart, Tom Janssen, Ray Osrin and Tom Toles. Veteran artist Jack Davis also expressed admiration for Oliphant's cartoons.