Steve Benson

Cartoonists Steve Benson and David Fitzsimmons in Tucson in 2023

More than a decade ago I was in Salt Lake City for the 2013, annual meeting of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists when my friend Pat Bagley, the Editorial Cartoonist for “The Salt Lake Tribune”, and our conference host, asked me if I’d like to join him and two other cartoonists for an interview at a local radio station.

I was delighted. Who doesn’t want to talk about cartoons? When I arrived I found my humble self sitting in the studio with the Mount Rushmore of American political cartoonists, between two of my idols, Steve Benson, the iconoclastic bad boy of "The Arizona Republic," and the Mike Keefe, another Pulitzer Prize winner who was with "The Denver Post" for a million years.

For one glorious moment of my career I felt like I was among the Mount Rushmore of American political cartoonists. The taping started and as we joked, jabbed and bantered with Pat, our host, we all absentmindedly doodled on the little pads in front of us.

Cartoonists were born to doodle.

We laughed nervously at Keefe's chilling "Tale of the early buy out". Despite winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, Mike was laid off from the Denver Post that same year. And Steve Benson's "I'm still a recovering Mormon" story touched us all. Like Steve, our host, Pat, had been a Mormon missionary in his youth, too.

The grandson of former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President, Ezra Taft Benson, Steve Benson may as well have been royalty when he courageously questioned and kissed his faith goodbye.

Benson was constantly sketching throughout the conference. During lunch at a cafe as we shared more stories, and gossip, he drew a caricature of Ellen and me. At that memorable moment I learned what it feels like to be drawn and handed a likeness of yourself. It is a strange magic, this conjuring of images out of thin air. We treasure that drawing.

Caricature of Ellen and I drawn by Steve Benson

Last week his lovely wife Claire texted to tell us on Tuesday, February 20th, my ink-stained pal, Steve Benson, suffered a stroke and was in the hospital in Mesa.

If you love his work as much as I do, and admire him as much as I do, now is the time to let him know. Here is the address:

Banner Rehabilitation Hospital East (Room 1196)
1702 South Pierpont Dr
Mesa, AZ 85206

For the next couple of weeks Steve will be getting around the clock care. And he’ll be getting physical, occupational, speech and psychological therapy, according to his wonderful, good-humored, patient, and forgiving wife, Claire.

Emphasis on “patient and forgiving”. We cartoonists can be asses to live with. Ask my wife, Ellen. In fact, that is why the four of us bonded so well.

I’ve known Steve for decades but we became close friends when Steve was jettisoned by “The Arizona Republic” back in 2019. I invited him to my home here in Tucson to offer him comfort, fellowship, encouragement, and distraction. It was an unforgettable week.

We are a tight group. When I began drawing political cartoons in 1984, there were more than 200 political cartoonists working in the United States. Today there may be less than 20 American political cartoonists who are employed full-time by daily newspapers.

Miraculously, many, like Steve and I, found ways to continue to draw fire, cartoons, and a paycheck. Some, like my friend, Chris Britt, became notable children’s book creators. Others, like Steve, found freelance work. You can find Steve’s work archived in “Arizona Mirror” which featured his work until he retired 4-months ago in December of ‘23.

The last time Ellen and I saw Steve and Claire was when they came down to see a favorite comedian of theirs, Nate Barghatzi, at the Ronstadt Music Hall. At the time Steve looked exhausted. He’s one of those guys who would always devote 12 hours a day to drawing cartoons if he could. And, much too often, he did. By then my dear friend found it painful to walk, due to years of being bent over his drawing board, yet he was as sharp as ever with zingers and stinging observations about our world.

Just as many of my friends encouraged me to find balance in my life, I encouraged Steve to find balance in his life. This is not easy for editorial cartoonists. We are rewarded for our compulsion to draw and free associate. We are rewarded for our addiction to news and the adrenaline high of meeting stressful daily deadlines.

Steve is a master storyteller. During that visit back in 2019, he told us about his time as a cop in Gilbert, Arizona when he came upon kids painting graffiti on a fence. He stopped his patrol car, got out and made them apologize to the owner of the home. And then they purchased white paint and Steve stood by as the young vandals painted over the damage they had done.

When the Gannett corporation laid him off in 2019, it came as a surprise. It was a disgraceful way to treat a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who had done so much for the reputation of “The Arizona Republic”.

For now, Steve’s pen is at rest and my friend has a challenging recovery ahead of him.

I love the lean and elegant visual quality of his succinct, brutal and funny cartoons rendered with that thick and thin beautiful Benson line. His savage caricatures were world class masterpieces in ink.

I was flattered when he would call me to ask me what I thought of an idea he was considering drawing. He would lament how he missed the newsroom where he would test his embryonic ideas to see what his colleagues thought of them. It was difficult to transition to the monastic life of a freelancer working out of his home studio.

I love you, Steve, my fellow patriot, my fellow smart-ass curmudgeon. And perhaps most importantly, my brother.

I hear your chances for a full recovery are good. That’s good to know.

We have road trips in our future.

Links to Steve’s cartoons:

https://azmirror.com/cartoons/

https://twitter.com/stevebenson_az?lang=en

https://www.creators.com/features/steve-benson