Gary Varvel

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Gary Varvel
Born1957 (age 66–67)
Indianapolis, Indiana
Alma materIndiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis
Known forEditorial cartoons, Racism
Awards
Websitegaryvarvel.com

Gary Varvel (born 1957) is an American editorial cartoonist. Varvel was the editorial cartoonist for Indianapolis Star from 1994 to 2019. He was the chief artist for The Indianapolis News for 16 years. His works are syndicated with Creators Syndicate.

Career[edit]

Cartooning[edit]

Varvel was inspired by Mad when he was younger, as well as by artist Pat Oliphant, cartoonist Mike Peters, and editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly.[1][2] He worked as a sports editor and cartoonist at the Danville High School newspaper, where he won first place in a cartoon contest held by the paper.[2] After graduating in 1975, he studied art at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.[1] He worked for about a year at a weekly newspaper before he was hired in 1978 as the newsroom artist at The Indianapolis News, where he worked until 1994.[1][3]

He began work as the editorial cartoonist for Indianapolis Star in 1994 following the retirement of Pulitzer Prize-winning Charles Werner.[2][4][3] He was awarded the H. Dean Evans Legacy Award for community service in 2006.[2] In 2010, he received the Grambs Aronson Award for Cartooning with a Conscience for a series of cartoons about child poverty.[2] That same year, the National Cartoonists Society awarded him the Reuben Award in the Best Editorial Cartoonist division.[5]

In the week before Thanksgiving in 2014, the Indianapolis Star published a cartoon by Varvel that was widely criticized as being racist.[6][7][8] In the cartoon, a white family is seen inside their dining room at a dinner table with an unhappy father holding a baked turkey saying "Thanks to the President's immigration order, we'll be having extra guests this Thanksgiving," while darker skinned people can be seen climbing through their window.[7] The Star later removed the mustache of one of the intruders, and executive editor Jeff Taylor deleted the cartoon entirely and issued an apology one day later.[7][8][9][10] In the apology, Taylor wrote, "Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive in his attempt to express his strong views about President Barack Obama's decision to temporarily prevent the deportation of millions of immigrants living and working illegally in the United States."[7][10]

Varvel was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in October 2015.[11] In 2018, another cartoon spurred an apology by the Indianapolis Star after some readers viewed Varvel's message as demeaning to women and sexual assault victims.[12][13]

In 2019, he retired from the Indianapolis Star.[4]

On January 9, 2021, in response to the permanent suspension of Donald Trump's Twitter account and the removal of the social media app Parler from the Google Play Store, Varvel published an editorial cartoon of a man with a worried expression removing the "December 2020" page from a calendar on the wall and noticing the next page reading "January 1984" (a reference to the George Orwell book Nineteen Eighty-Four). The cartoon received widespread criticism for its depiction of the actions of non-government entities being likened to state-mandated censorship, and gained internet meme status through various edits starting as early as January 19.

In 2023, the Toronto Sun published a cartoon by Varvel that was criticized for being antisemitic and Ukrainophobic.[14][15] In the cartoon, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, is depicted with a Shylock nose, stealing a wallet out of U.S. President Joe Biden's pocket.[16] Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the illustration "the worst kind of antisemitic content."[17] The Sun later apologized for publishing Varvel's comic, saying it did not meet their editorial standards and that Varvel's work would no longer be used.[18]

Writing[edit]

Varvel co-wrote The Board (a 2008 short film) and The War Within (a 2014 film) with his son, Brett. Both films were produced by House of Grace Films, Brett's Christian film production company.[1] He also wrote a children's book titled The Good Shepherd (2014, ISBN 9780692314838), released through the film production company.[1]

He also writes the syndicated comic Off Center.[19]

Selected awards and honors[edit]

In addition to the following selected awards and honors, Varvel is a fifteen-time winner of the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists' Award for Best Editorial Cartoon and a thirteen-time winner of the Best Editorial Cartoonist Award in the Hoosier State Press Association.[1]

Year Organization Award title,
Category 		Work Result Refs
2006 H. Dean Evans Legacy Award,
Community service 		n/a Won [1][2]
2010 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award,
Best Editorial Cartoonist 		n/a Won [1][5]
Grambs Aronson Award,
Cartooning with a Conscience 		Path to Hope series Won [1][2][20]
2011 Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award n/a Won [1]
2012 National Headliners Award,
Editorial cartooning 		n/a Won [2]
2015 Hoosier State Press Association Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame n/a Inducted [11]
2018 Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Advancing American Democracy Award n/a Won [21]

Personal life[edit]

Varvel was born in 1957 in Indianapolis, Indiana to Forest and Priscilla Varvel, and grew up in Danville, Indiana.[1][2] He has three children with his wife, Carol.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Price, Nelson. "Gary Varvel · 2015". Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "About Gary Varvel". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Reader Requests Lead NewsBlaze To Introduce Cartoons". eworldwire. February 7, 2006. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Varvel, Gary (January 12, 2019). "Varvel: IndyStar's cartoonist says thank you and farewell". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Division Awards". National Cartoonists Society. Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  6. ^ Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (November 23, 2014). "Indianapolis Star Newspaper Apologizes for Cartoon on Migrants". New York Times.
  7. ^ a b c d Bankoff, Caroline (November 22, 2014). "Newspaper Sorry for Suggesting That Undocumented Immigrants Are Going to Destroy White People's Thanksgiving'". New York.
  8. ^ a b staff (November 22, 2014). "Indy Star: 'We erred' in publishing cartoon". WRTV.
  9. ^ Boggioni, Tom (November 22, 2014). "Indianapolis newspaper alters, then deletes racist Thanksgiving cartoon following complaints". The Raw Story.
  10. ^ a b Taylor, Jeff (November 22, 2014). "We erred in publishing cartoon". Indianapolis Star.
  11. ^ a b "Hall of Fame ceremony Oct. 24". Hoosier State Press Association. 5 October 2015. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  12. ^ "People Are Outraged By This Cartoon Of Christine Blasey Ford Demanding Roses And M&M's". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved September 24, 2018.[unreliable source?]
  13. ^ Ramos, Ronnie (September 24, 2018). "IndyStar editor Ronnie Ramos on Varvel cartoon: 'Our readers deserved better'". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  14. ^ "Ukrainian Canadian Congress". X.com.
  15. ^ "Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs". X.com.
  16. ^ "Gary Varvel cartoon, Dec. 20, 2023". Toronto Sun.
  17. ^ Levitz, Stephanie (2023-12-21). "Justin Trudeau criticizes Toronto Sun newspaper over 'antisemitic content'". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  18. ^ "Sun apologizes for cartoon".
  19. ^ "Off Center". Creators Syndicate. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  20. ^ "The Aronson Awards". Film & Media Hunter College. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  21. ^ "Luckovich, Ramirez and Varvel Win 2018 Advancing American Democracy Award". The Daily Cartoonist. September 13, 2018. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
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