For 17 years Bob Diven has been the Sunday editorial cartoonist for The Las Cruces Sun News, now Bob is stepping away from the drawing board.
Diven said he decided to step away from the cartoon for several reasons — weariness of the “freelance art hustle,” physical tiredness and the development of carpal tunnel in his wrist, the increased difficulty of not repeating cartoons and the shrinking of local news coverage.
The Las Cruces Sun News said goodbye to their cartoonist:
For nearly two decades, Las Cruces Sun-News subscribers enjoyed flipping to the political cartoon in the Sunday print edition and seeing what event in the past week artist Bob Diven decided to satirize.
After 17 years putting ink to paper, Diven decided it was time to cap his pen.
Diven is a local artist who over the years has become entrenched with the very culture of Las Cruces. Every day, people pass by his murals, paintings and logos.
“One day I was dropping off an illustration (at the newspaper) someone hired me to do for a Christmas ad special and (Jim Lawitz) asked me if I was interested to do a Sunday cartoon, and I was thrilled to say yes,” he said.
Diven’s first political cartoon appeared in the Sun-News in January 2006 and nearly every Sunday following up to the summer of 2023.
“When I started doing the cartoons, people would tell me ideas or want me to do national things on it,” he said. “No, I’m the cartoonist for the Las Cruces Sun-News. I can only deal with subjects that the readers of the paper see, so my fuel is what’s in the paper.”
Diven’s last cartoon appeared in the Aug. 20 print edition.
For now, Diven said he does not have plans for the next chapter of his artistic life, but rest is essential. He explained that he is working on treating his carpal tunnel and recently dove into a new hobby of repairing typewriters.
“I think I just have to give myself some time to sort of decompress and recover from being an artist for 40-some years,” Diven said.
At times Bob was a columnist for the paper, below on the occasion of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Painting • Portraiture • Illustration • Logo Design • Murals at the Bob Diven Artist homepage.
What’s a newspaper cartoonist without an end of the year best of page? This one from 2020:
