After 43 years of service in the newsroom, illustrator and cartoonist Dan Martin retired from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but he still continues to freelance daily the front page Weatherbird, which he has drawn since 1986. This beloved St. Louis institution, created in 1901, is the oldest continually drawn daily cartoon in American journalism, and Dan is only the sixth Birdkeeper. For 20 years, Dan also drew the political cartoon “Postcards from Mound City” for the editorial pages as well as illustrating four books with friend Bill McClellan.
Having served as a staff artist, his career has taken him from the White House to murder trials to sketching travel stories and Cardinal baseball. A member of the National Cartoonist Society, he is a member of the St. Louis Media History Foundation Hall of Fame as well as serving this year as the organization’s president. He’s a native St. Louisan and has a BFA from the University of Kansas.
His lecture will be based on two books he wrote, “See You in The Funny Papers: The Rich History of St. Louis Cartooning” and “The First 100 Years of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Weatherbird.” He will also be happy to swap stories about Gillott pen nibs, Higgins ink, and Pigma Micron drawing pens.
Speaker: Dan Martin
Cost: Free
Day/Time: Saturday, 1:30 to 3:00
Room: Alpine 2
Duration: 90 minutes