John Deering, Editorial Cartoonist and Creator of Strange Brew

John Deering has cartooned since he was a three year old boy. His childhood was spent in an inspired household, filled with unusual activity. The Deering family lived in an apartment, right in a Fire Station/Police Station in the northwest end of Little Rock, Arkansas. (His father was the Fire Chief/City Comptroller.) The excitement of fire emergencies, police business and politics helped sharpen the young man's eye for a good laugh.

By the second grade, John's teacher was complaining to his parents about his lack of concentration in anything but drawing. When John reached junior high, he drew caricatures of school staff, including the principal. And he was getting paid for his efforts.

Two years at the University of Arkansas provided John with skills in commercial and fine art. In 1981, he took a job in the advertising layout department of the Arkansas Democrat, the Little Rock newspaper. It was the perfect place to hone his training and cultivate his developing talents. John's first tasks were charts, maps and some editorial illustration work. His mentor was the Arkansas Democrat's own editorial cartoonist, Jon Kennedy.

In just a few short months, John was asked to submit cartoons to the newspaper's Op-Ed page. He said he "quickly learned the power of editorial cartoons when the phones started ringing."*(1) He also earned recognition for his creations.

John received his first award for Best Editorial Cartoonist from the Arkansas Press Association in 1983. The award brought him to the attention of the Editorial Page editor and earned him a slot on Saturday and Monday pages along with his Op Ed work.

In 1988, Jon Kennedy retired. John Deering was chosen as the Arkansas Democrat editorial cartoonist. With no shortage of funny local and national news to spoof, his career blossomed. John won the John Fischetti Cartoon Competition Award from Columbia College, Ohio, 1994. The Arkansas Press Association's Best Editorial Cartoonist Award was given to John six (yes, that is SIX) more times. In 1997, he won the distinguished Berryman Award from the National Press Foundation.

Creators Syndicate member John Newcombe was in attendance at the Berryman Awards dinner. He asked John to submit his editorial cartoons for consideration. John Deering received a contract for syndication almost in a wink.

Though the scope of his editorial cartooning is widely varied, John has more to say. He created a new cartoon panel, Strange Brew. It is an outlet for his humour that doesn't fit into the editorial cartoon scheme. "In Strange Brew, everything's fair game. I get to cut loose and draw anything," said Deering in the Creators Syndicate biography. *(2) He was offered, and accepted, a second syndication contract within months of receiving the first contract.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic