Ralph Schlegel – RIP
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Political cartoonist and illustrator Ralph Schlegel has passed away.
Ralph Alan Schlegel
August 5, 1920 – May 1, 2025
Ralph Schlegel was six years old when had his first political cartoon published. He chuckles now remembering, “It was in the Schlegel Weekly Newspaper my family published three times a year.”
His father, Henry Schlegel, was a graphic artist for Paterson Parchment Paper.
About his drawing style, Schlegel says, “I like things to look sketchy. It may take a day or two, but I want it to look like I just sat down and did it.”
To help get that look, his approach is as direct as his idea. “I use pen and ink on water color paper. I dip the pen in the ink well and go. The pen varies depending on what I pick up. Sometime it has a different look, but I never was concerned about it as long as I stayed in my own style.”
He is, however, selective about his paper, one that enables him to keep that lively, fast sketched feeling. “I use an imported paper that has a very sympathetic surface. It’s not smooth. I like to use a paper that helps me out. It’s a water color paper that comes from France. It seems to work for me, but it’s rather expensive, 120 pound paper. Good size.”
Ralph Alan Schlegel passed away peacefully in Orange Park, Florida, on May 1, 2025.
After serving in the U.S. Army as a mapmaker and being honorably discharged in 1952, Ralph pursued his passion for art at the Philadelphia College of Art. He met his beloved wife of 55 years, Sharon, while working as an artist at the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.
Ralph had a long and fulfilling career as a commercial artist and freelance illustrator. His work appeared on the cover of Newsweek and the U.S. News and World Report magazine, as well as in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Magazine, Business Week, and various Smithsonian publications. He was the Sunday political cartoonist for The Trenton Times from 1981 to 2011.
From a 2013 interview during an exhibition of his work:
While the majority of the 57 works on display in cases and on wall shelves at the library feature the likes of Chris Christie, Jim McGreevy, the two Tom Keans (as well as presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush I and II), there are also illustrations for U.S. News and World Report (the cover), the New York Times, Business Week, Readers Digest, and more. It is a small sampling of a big output.
“I do pictures for advertising, editorial, and publishers,” says Schlegel of his work. “I was a freelancer and things worked out well. I am locally a political cartoonist; other places I’m an illustrator.”
Schlegel is fast to explain the difference between the two. “As an illustrator, you’re working with other people to put forth an idea by another person. If you are an editorial cartoonist, you’re on your own. If the client doesn’t like, they don’t buy it. I get an idea and submit it. They either take or they don’t,” he says.
Schlegel’s other clients included The New York Times, Philadelphia Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Smithsonian, Farm Journal, and others.
As for editorial cartooning Schegel says:
“If you have a crooked politician, that’s far game.” So is “whatever you think the editor allows.”
In the 1960s Schlegel landed a job as an artist in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin’s promotion department. There he met Sharon Ribner, who after 47 years of marriage is known as Sharon Schlegel, the long-respected reporter and columnist for the Times of Trenton.
It was in 1981 — when the Times of Trenton was the more plainly stated the Trenton Times — when Ralph Schlegel’s editorial career started with a cartoon dealing with the New Jersey State Police.
A Times of Trenton profile of the artist from 2013.
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