Cartoonist Clay Butler has passed away.
June 23, 1966 – June 13, 2023
Clay [David Butler] was diagnosed with Ocular Melanoma, a rare aggressive eye cancer in January 2022. It metastasized to his liver in September. He died on June 13th 2023 at home with the support of hospice, 17 ½ months after the original diagnosis.
Clay became a designer of some note and dabbled in other career options:
[I]n 1998 he got a computer and started doing web design. Clay volunteered at Community Television in Santa Cruz, when it first began and where learned how to do videography. He had several programs there; The Bill and Clay Show, Yadda Yadda and Book TV, along with numerous documentaries which he made with his video partner, Peter McGettigan. Clay began doing packaging design in the 2000’s and it encompassed many of his creative skills including writing. In 2001 Clay and Rosalee bought a home in Alimur Mobile Home Park, where he became President of the HOA. He set out to purchase the park from the owner and make it a resident owned. In 2016, his goal was realized.
But here we will highlight his career as a political cartoonist.
From 1993 to 2001 Clay created and self-syndicated the weekly Sidewalk Bubblegum cartoon which mostly appeared in alternative papers and publications (“including Z Magazine, Playboy, Funny Times, Comic Relief, Creative Loafing, Metro Santa Cruz, and Finland’s largest Swedish-language daily newspaper, the HUFVUDSTADSBLADET”), though in 2000 and 2001 it appeared weekly in the more mainstream Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Clay has made the entire Sidewalk Bubblegum archive available.
His photography was exceptional- the early morning shots of Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay. Every photo was really stellar. His loss is a loss for the creative community and he is missed. My condolences to his family and friends.