Editorial cartooning Obituary

Jim Adcock – RIP

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D. D. Degg August 4, 2023 1 minute 0 comments

Publisher, cartoonist, artist Jim Adcock has passed away.

From the obituary:

Jim said he could not remember a time when he didn’t want to be an artist. Though he had the brains and heart to conquer any discipline, he had scores of stories about the trouble he got into in school because he didn’t care about learning anything but art. The prestigious Maryland Institute College of Art apparently agreed, enthusiastically accepting him as a student and ultimately awarding him a degree in art education, which he used initially to teach art to middle schoolers in the Baltimore school system.

Jim found his true home and career in Delmarva, a place he adored, with people he made it his business to know and befriend. Jim was a local icon. He left a huge catalog of artwork celebrating the people, landscapes, architecture, and attractions in the area.

Jim held several jobs before working full time as a painter. While working in publishing, he decided Ocean Pines deserved a better newspaper, so he created the Ocean Pines Gazette. The paper grew quickly and in 2004, Jim sold it to Flag Publications, which renamed it the Bayside Gazette. From then until his death, Jim published a humorous editorial cartoon in the Gazette every week that won him an entirely new set of fans.

A short time before his death the Ocean Pines Association profiled Jim:

Adcock, the editorial cartoonist, said he enjoys continuing to contribute to the Bayside Gazette – but it’s occasionally something of a tightrope act. Over the years, he’s lambasted scores of local politicians, including many Ocean Pines Board members. 

“I really have to be careful. I have to find out my sources and I have to do research, so that I don’t look bad,” he said. “[Former Board member] Marty Clarke was one of my favorite guys to cover, and he’s got my cartoons going up the staircase to his second floor. It’s quite an honor.”

The Ocean Pines Forum has a gallery of Jim’s cartoons.

The Jim Adcock Studios website displays many of his paintings.

_{all cartoons and painting © the Estate of Jim Adcock}