Today is Rob Rogers Day in Pittsburgh

Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers has been honored by the city of Pittsburgh with a declaration naming today, October 8, 2013 as Rob Rogers Day. The declaration honors Rob’s three decades of drawing editorial cartoons and using “wit, deft artistry, and a large dose of love for Pittsburgh, Rob Rogers has for years charmed readers, framed controversial political issues, and advanced the art of editorial cartooning for the good of our City and the nation”.

Congratulations and well deserved, Rob!

Here’s the full declaration.

WHEREAS, with the help of his characters Rosie the Waitress and Vic the Steelers Fan, Pittsburgh cartoonist Rob Rogers has for years playfully poked at the comings and goings in local government through his comic strip “Brewed on Grant”; and

WHEREAS, while garnering wide, national acclaim, Rob has delighted and infuriated (and everything in between) with his syndicated political cartoons, capturing national moods and carrying forward the centuries-old art of editorial cartooning; and

WHEREAS, born and raised in Philadelphia, and then moving with his family to Oklahoma at the age of 13, Rob began his cartooning career as a young child, later majoring in Art at Oklahoma State University and then returning to Pennsylvania where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon in 1984; and

WHEREAS, fresh out of grad school, and after having penned a weekly editorial cartoon, “Rogers’ View,” which ran in The Pitt News, Rob was hired by the Pittsburgh Press where he worked as a cartoonist, later continuing with the Post-Gazette; and

WHEREAS, while Rob’s cartoons appear six days a week in the Post-Gazette, his work has also gained national attention, running through syndication in national media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, and USA Today; and

WHEREAS, Rob’s work has received numerous accolades, including multiple Golden Quill Awards, the 1995 National Headliner Award, the Year’s Best Cartoonist award from The Week magazine, and the 2000 and 2013 Overseas Press Club’s Thomas Nast Award, and in 1999 he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and

WHEREAS, Rob has curated three national exhibits of cartoon art: Too Hot to Handle: Creating Controversy through Political Cartoons (2003) and Drawn to the Summit: A G-20 Exhibition of Political Cartoons (2009) both at the Andy Warhol Museum; and Bush Leaguers: Cartoonists Take on the White House (2007) at the American University Museum in Washington D.C.; and

WHEREAS, in 2009 Carnegie Mellon University Press published No Cartoon Left Behind: The Best of Rob Rogers, a 25-year retrospective; and

WHEREAS, in the summer 2013, Rob’s seven-year cartoon coverage of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl was exhibited at the ToonSeum in a show titled Juice Box Memories: The Best of Boy Mayor which satirized, lampooned, and, in its own way, celebrated Pittsburgh’s youngest elected mayor; and

WHEREAS, with wit, deft artistry, and a large dose of love for Pittsburgh, Rob Rogers has for years charmed readers, framed controversial political issues, and advanced the art of editorial cartooning for the good of our City and the nation.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby declare October 8, 2013 to be Rob Rogers Day in the City of Pittsburgh.