Minneapolis Star-Tribune – DarylCagle.com

Steve Sack has Retired

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date April 24, 2022

I’m sorry to write that my friend and longtime CagleCartoonist, Steve Sack has retired from editorial cartooning. Here’s a note Steve wrote for our subscribing editors:

It’s with extremely mixed feelings that after 42 years, and over ten thousand cartoons, I will be retiring from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

I’ve been away from my drawing table in recent weeks, recovering from hand surgery for carpal tunnel and other nerve issues. I’ll eventually have my hand back. But after truly difficult reflection I’ve decided that I’d like to change my focus. At 68 I have other interests and projects, artistic and otherwise, that I’d like to devote more time to.

I want to sincerely thank you for printing or at least considering my work for your paper. An artist needs an audience and I am most appreciative that you could share my efforts with your readers. As much as cartoonists sometimes complain and butt heads with editors, in truth we depend on you.

I hope you continue to support our unique profession. It’s been my honor to appear on your pages.

Best,
Steve Sack

Steve drew his last cartoon for us two months ago, on February 25th. We were hoping for a quick come back from his surgery, but that was not to be. This is a sad day, but Steve doesn’t sound sad; he seems excited about different projects. Our door is always open to Steve to return. Steve’s cartoon archive will remain on our sites, with his oldies available to editors.

Steve’s actual last cartoon, or I should say, most recent cartoon, is this Tucker Carlson gem, in collaboration with Ed Wexler. Steve called Ed to describe his idea which Ed drew up. I’ve invited Steve to do the same with me; we’ll see if that happens.

Steve wrote this piece for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and asked me to hold it until today:

Message to Star Tribune readers
———————-
It’s with extremely mixed feelings that after 42 years, and over ten thousand cartoons, I will be retiring from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

I wish I was able to offer a proper farewell cartoon. I’ve been away from my drawing table in recent weeks, recovering from hand surgery for carpal tunnel and other nerve issues. I’ll eventually have my hand back. But after truly difficult reflection I’ve decided that I’d like to change my focus. At 68 I have other interests and projects, artistic and otherwise, that I’d like to devote more time to.

It’s been a pleasure to work with everyone at the Star Tribune. The support I’ve felt over the years from the editors, writers, and support staff from every department has made this a cartoonist’s dream job.

I’d like to express my sincere appreciation for you, my readers. Since my career’s beginning at the U of M student paper, The Daily, I’ve been cranking out cartoons for 45 years. They haven’t all been gems but I can honestly say I gave each one my all. Some readers have taken exception to a few of the views I’ve expressed. OK, maybe more than a few….that’s the nature of the opinion biz. The Minneapolis Tribune editor who hired me, the late great Charles Bailey, gave me just one directive: “Never be afraid to make people angry, but know exactly why you’re doing it”. A political cartoonist couldn’t ask for more.

A few years back the Star Tribune published a collection of my cartoons in a book, “The First and Only Book of Sack” (still available in the Star Tribune online store!). To help promote it I stepped up my public appearances and had the opportunity to visit with many of our newspaper’s readers in person. I never failed to be gratified by the appreciation for the Star Tribune’s journalism that was conveyed.

Editorial cartooning is a negative art form, for the most part. We look for things to complain about, find fault, point fingers. The world is a mess and always has been, somewhere. We look for it. Our tools can be harsh: Sarcasm. Caricature. Gross exaggeration. We twist politicians’ words, nitpik their faults and figuratively pull down their pants. The lofty goal of it all this is to expose a Greater Truth. Which simply boils down to sharing one’s view of the world. That’s the goal of every artist.

From Day 1 in 1981 its been my honor to be the cartoonist for the Star Tribune. Whether you loved my cartoons or hated them, posted them on your refrigerator or lined your bird cage, thank you for allowing me to be a small part of your day.

Steve Sack

See Steve’s farewell in the Star-Tribune.

See Steve’s cartoon archive.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune will continue running CagleCartoons now that Steve has left.

Our weekly Top Ten is now a newspaper column! Subscribing editors can find it at CagleCartoons.com with download links to grab the cartoons in high resolution.

Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS! See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!

Tags editorial cartoons, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, political cartoons, Steve Sack

Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Sack on Minneapolis Murder Nightmare

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date April 24, 2021

My buddy and star CagleCartoonist, Pulitzer winner Steve Sack, has been in the middle of the maelstrom in Minneapolis with the murder of George Floyd, the protests and the trial of killer cop Derek Chauvin. Here’s a select batch of Steve’s great cartoons from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers sink too, and along with them, our Cagle.com site.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.

Tags Black lives matter, BLM, Derek Chauvin, George Floyd, I can't breathe, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, murder trial

Blog

France, a Neo-Classical Cartoon, Cows and Lunch!

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date October 8, 2014

I just got back from our Cagle Cartoons junket to the cartoon festival in St Just France. I’m way behind on my cartoons, but I knocked this one out from a snapshot that I took in an obscure corner of the Louvre.

This is a painting by 18^th century Neo-classical painter Louis-Jacque Durameau about the death of Marie Antoinette. It struck me as a multi-panel cartoon with a big Nobel Peace Prize medal for Barack Obama. I almost put labels on the frames, “Then,” “… and Now” but I decided less is more. This painting is really funny – and all the more so because it takes itself so seriously.

The photo below is our group having dinner in Paris. From left to right is cartoonist Adam Zyglis, cartoonist Nate Beeler , me, cartoonist Steve Sack, cartoonist Monte Wolverton, Janelle Beamer, the charming fiancé of charming, conservative cartoonist Rick McKee, Nate’s wife Eve and Adam’s wife Jessica.

Here’s another group shot, around the cow statue at the editorial cartoon exhibition in St Just le Martel, deep in the heart of France near Limoges. Left to right is Nate, Eve, me, my wife, Peg, Justine the cow, Adam, Jessica, Janelle, Rick and Monte. Steve Sack was with us too; looks like he went missing in this one.

The grand prize winner of the festival (the winner of the cow, the “Humor Vache”) was Venezuelan cartoonist Rayma Suprani. The prize is an actual cow. Rayma also got a little porcelain cow.

I’ve long been impressed with Rayma. She drew for the El Universal newspaper in Caracas where she was a brave critic of the Hugo Chavez regime. The government took over her newspaper and she lost her job. Rayma may be moving to the USA next; I look forward to seeing what she draws here.

I won the grand prize cow at the festival last year, and I drew the poster for this year’s salon. As part of the winner from last year thing, the brilliant French caricaturist, Moines, drew my portrait. That’s me, giant me, and Moines at the right. Moines draws on a special kind of scratchboard and he carved each of my whiskers into the board with an X-acto knife. Makes me wanna pinch those cheeks. Moines complains that he’s down to his last couple of sheets of this paper, which isn’t made anymore. Shame.

Tags Adam Zyglis, Augusta Chronicle, Barack Obama, Buffalo News, Columbus Dispatch, Daryl Cagle, France, Louis-Jacque Durameau, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Monte Wolverton, Nate Beeler, Rick McKee, St. Just Le Martel, Steve Sack, the Louvre

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Daryl Has a Cow

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date October 13, 2013

Here I am with my cow, Josette. I’m holding the St. Just porcelain statue depicting their logo that they give to grand prix winners.

I just got back from the grand editorial cartooning festival in St. Just le Martel, France where I won the grand prix, the “Prix de l’humor Vache” award, which was an actual cow, named Josette.

The “Salon de St. Just, ” in its 32^nd year, draws cartoonists from around the world to a tiny town near Limoges. The townspeople have adopted the cartoonists and hold a party that stretches over two weekends, in a grand cartoon museum they built in the middle of cow country. Most of the cartoonists stay in the homes of volunteer villagers – the entire event is put together by townpeople Cartoonists usually come for only one weekend of the festival, splitting the crowd between what becomes two different weekend groups of roughly 120 cartoonists each.

This was my second “Salon,” last year I went with our knuckle-dragging, conservative, “Tea Party” cartoonist, Eric Allie, who was a strange beast to the French. This year I went with three liberal cartoonists, Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune, Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Bob Englehart of the Hartford Courant for three days of open bar and schmoozing with our international colleagues.

Here I am with my Cagle Cartoons colleagues, dubbed “Cagle Cowboys”, from left, Josette, Pat Bagley, Me, Bob Englehart and Steve Sack below.

My festival friends tell me that a cow is usually a placid animal, but sometimes the cow will get annoyed and give a swift, painful kick as a surprise to an unlucky bystander; this contributes to the idea that the cow is a little sneaky, nasty and unpredictable. The “Prix de l’humor Vache,” the grand prize they gave me, is described as an award for “caustic humor.” “Humor Vache” (funny cow) rhymes with “Amour Vache” (love cow, or more accurately “rough love”) a French idiom for a love affair that is nasty, consisting of harsh words and arguments. In France, to refer to someone as a “vache” (cow) is a little bit nasty. In contrast, on the first Saturday of the Salon, they give out the “Humor Tendre” (Tender Humor) award, which is a sheep, given to a sweet cartoonist such as a children’s book illustrator.

The Limoges area is proud of their cows, which are raised for beef and are all a warm brown color. The cow is the symbol and mascot of the Salon. Every year, the “Prix de l’humor Vache” cow is named “Josette” and is actually given to the winning cartoonist. At the ceremony, the mayor of St. Just, Gerard Vandenbroucke, awarded Limoges porcelain cows to my three American compatriots, dubbing them “Cagle’s cowboys.” Bob, Pat and Steve, who can also claim to have won cows (although, not real cows) took their little cows around to all the other cartoonists at the Salon to sign; it was charming.

Typically, the winning cartoonist is expected to take a cash award (I still don’t know how much) in lieu of actually taking delivery of the real Josette, who would be difficult to check on a plane and would likely be an unpleasant roommate in my tiny, Nashville apartment. But, they make it clear that the cartoonist really won a cow and could actually take the cow if he or she chooses to, and there are stories of cartoonists in past years choosing to take the cow. I’m told that are some amusing movies of a past winner taking his cow to Paris, trying to bring the cow on the Metro, and taking the cow up the Eiffel Tower. If anyone can find these movies online, I’d love to take a look.

Part of winning the grand prize cow is the obligation to do the art for the poster for the next Salon. The poster this year featured a lovely Degas-like ballerina cow. The festival people then dress a cow sculpture, in the entry to the museum, to match the cow on the poster. My plan is to give the cow on next year’s poster a very elaborate costume that will be a unique challenge for a St. Just volunteer to create for the cow statue. Right now, I’m thinking of doing the poster cow as Marie Antoinette with a huge, elaborate, flowing gown.

Here’s Bob Englehart with the cow statue at the entrance to the exhibition. The cow is dressed to match the poster which is a ballerina this year. Next year I’ll be doing the poster and I plan to put the cow in a very elaborate costume that will be a challenge for St. Just’s volunteer seamstresses.

The whole event in St. Just is a lovely boost for our beleaguered editorial cartooning profession which is suffering in France as it is here and around the world with newspapers declining everywhere. I’d love to see some of the great French attitude about the value of editorial cartooning rub off on other parts of the world, like America, which treats cartooning as a second class art form. I can’t imagine a whole town in the USA choosing to build a municipal cartoon museum, opening their homes, and pitching together to cook dinner for hundreds of editorial cartoonists – and, of-course, a nine day open bar would be unthinkable in America.

From left to right, Bob Englehart, Stave Sack, St. Just’s Mayor Gerard Vandenbroucke in the red shirt, me holding my “Prix de l’humor Vache” porcelain statue, Josette, and Pat Bagley in the lower right corner.

Below is a scan of the Limoges newspaper front page and interior story from the day after I had a cow.

Blog

Come See Daryl Cagle in Knoxville and St. Just le Martel!

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date September 25, 2013

I will crawl out of my spider hole for two events! Come see me!

I’ll be speaking, and giving a Powerpoint presentation, to the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) in Knoxville, TN on Saturday, October 26th, at about 11:00am, at the Crowne Plaza Knoxville (University), in Salon B on the mezzanine level. The NCS chapter folks tell me that anyone can come, so here is your chance to tell me off face to face, no hiding behind those nasty e-mails.

I’m impressed with the NCS Southeast Chapter, they put on an ambitious gathering and have a lot of cartooning luminaries in their ranks. I’m looking forward to it.

Next week I’m going to the big, international, editorial cartooning convention in St. Just le Martel, France. This is a little town that has decided that they love editorial cartoons – they built an impressive cartoon museum and the whole town comes out in wholehearted support of our troubled art form. They also love cows; this is French cow country, down by Limoges.

Three of the cartoonists I syndicate are coming along, Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune, Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Bob Englehart of the Hartford Courant. I think this will be the biggest American turnout that little St. Just has ever had. And none of us speak French. Here is a list of all the attending editorial cartoonists, and the days that they will be in attendance.

So, if there are any editorial cartooning fans in France who want to visit with some obscure, American editorial cartoonists, the four of us will be hanging with all the other world cartoonists at the cartoon museum the second weekend of the Salon, October 4th, 5th and 6th.

Tags Bob Englehart, cartoonist, Daryl Cagle, Festival International de la Caricature and do Dessin de Presse et d'humor, Hartford Courant, Knoxville, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, National Cartoonists Society, NCS South East Chapter, Pat Bagley, Saint Just Le Martel, Salt Lake Tribune, St. Just, Steve Sack, tennessee

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Welcome Steve Sack!

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date January 1, 2013

I’m happy to announce that we have added my cartoonist buddy, Steve Sack, of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, to our newspaper syndication package.

Steve has been one of my favorite cartoonists for decades. Steve’s style is deceivingly cute and sweet, masking some nasty, hard-hitting commentary. Here are a few of my favorites from Steve’s last year. I’m still laughing at “Rice Konspiracies” below.