above: Tom Toles for The Spectrum April 28, 1969 and for The Washington Post April 28, 2019
Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt has announced that Tom Toles will be retiring with November 1, 2020 being his last contribution to The Post. From WaPo media reporter Paul Farhi:
As of this writing Tom has not yet declared his plans on Twitter or Facebook.
As noted in the last paragraph The Post hopes to find a replacement for Tom.
The Washingtonian carries the story about Tom’s retirement from The Post:
Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles will retire from the Washington Post on November 1, Post staffers learned in a memo Thursday.
Toles moved to the Post from the Buffalo News in 2002, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990. Toles “set an almost unimaginable standard of consistent excellence.”
Whether Tom continues editorial cartooning with an lighter schedule remains to be seen.
Wikipedia has a biography of Tom, who turns 69 years old this month.
Tom is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a recipient of The Herb Block Prize.
Tom’s fifty year career as editorial cartoonist began at the University of New York at Buffalo and The Spectrum, the campus newspaper there. By the time he left his iconic signature had been settled on, though not his eventual cartoon style. The University of Buffalo maintains an archive of Tom’s early 1969-1973 work. While GoComics maintains a 25 year archive of Tom’s later 1995-2020 work.
We wish Tom all the best and await further news.
Tom Toles also did a lovely panel comic, Randolph Itch, 2am, with the classically simple premise that Randolph is up late at night, tormented by visions of things. Maybe the premise was too confined to run for long, but it was great while it lasted (and GoComics hasn’t pruned it yet; see, eg, https://www.gocomics.com/randolphitch/2020/10/03 ).
I was so focused on Tom’s political cartooning that I completely forgot about his work for the syndicated funny pages,
Randolph Itch, 2 a.m. (2000-02) and Curious Avenue (1992-94).
This one saddens me. He’s one of the best, and probably never more needed.
Good luck in whatever Mr. Toles decides to do next.
I had a Buffalo Courier-Express paper route when Tom started there. Can’t say I’ve read entire body of work, but he was always on my list while he was in Buffalo and I have seen a large sampling of his WaPo work. He is one of the greats. I hope the Post can maintain the quality that Tom and Ann Telnaes have produce.
I have always loved Tom’s work. His cartoon messages are my kind of politics. Tom did a great interview for the video I produced on cartoons about Geraldine Ferraro as Democratic VP candidate for the 1984 election, called “Running Mate: Gender and Politics in the Editorial Cartoons.” His insights into the considerations that were important in cartooning about the first woman in that position enriched the video immensely. I’m delighted to have that record of his thoughts on that exciting moment, and grateful to him for granting the interview. Thanks, Tom! And all the best. Elaine