I promise you that I wasn't sure if this post was a good or a very bad idea.
The point is that I had a draft with notes and curiosities that caught my attention at the time and that were left aside.
I finally decided to rescue them and give them shape because this is a blog and no editor-in-chief or director was going to call me to give me the go-ahead or reject the text.
Road accidents are always on the list of the most common causes of death, so I start with some of the cartoonists who lost their lives on the road.
Car accidents Dennis Renault (1936-2022) Photo: The Sacramento Bee Dennis Renault was the political cartoonist for The Sacramento Bee from 1971 to 1998 and other McClatchy newspapers in California. He died Wednesday, Oct. 19, in an accident at Fremont Peak State Park in Monterey County. He was 86.
According to the authorities and his wife, Dennis Renault's vehicle went down a steep embankment in the park as he and his wife, Marty, were preparing to camp in the area.
Lars Vilks (1946-2021) The most recent case was that of the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks died he was escorted by Caricatures of Mohammed
Willam Hamilton (1939-2016) The cartoonist William Hamilton, who worked for the magazine The New Yorker and his cartoons
Hamilton ran a stop sign and collided with a pickup truck in Lexington. His wife, who reported the news to the media, said her husband ran a stop sign near their home and his car was hit by a pickup truck. "I don't know if he was unwell or distracted, but that's how it happened," she said.
Doug Marlette (1949-2007) The accident in which cartoonist Doug Marlette, 57, died occurred on 10 July in heavy rain about three miles east of Holly Springs. Police concluded that the Toyota pickup truck in which the 57-year-old cartoonist was a passenger had been killed winner Kudzu copy in Archive
Ramón Tosas, Ivà (1941-1993) Maki Navaja, ¡Olé, Mis Güevos! (1988 ) An untimely demise was that of Ivà, father of, among other things, the unforgettable family of "La Puta Mili" and "Makinavaja" characters. On the morning of 22 July 1993 Ramón Tosas Fuentes accident traffic accident in Briones (La Rioja)
The car in which the author was travelling with the Catalan theatre director Ángel Alonso, who was seriously injured, left the road, crashed into the protective fence and overturned at kilometre 94 of the A-68 motorway. Ivà died on the spot, he was 52 years old.
Sidney Smith (1877-1935) The American cartoonist Sidney Smith, the creator of The Gumps
Source: The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., 21 October 1935
According to the article published the day after the accident in The Evening Star, Smith's lawyer, Ednyfed Williams, revealed that a few hours before the fatal event, the cartoonist had signed a contract renewal with the Chicago Tribune and the New York News Syndicate which stipulated the payment of 750,000 dollars for a period of five years (in other media there is talk of higher and lower amounts), in any case, a lot of money for that time, the golden era
In 1922 had already signed a contract one-million-dollar , ten-year contract with the Chicago Tribune that made him the richest syndicated cartoonist in the country. That million-dollar contract included a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
Image source Michael Sporn Animation
although articles continue to be found claiming that Smith crashed in that luxurious Rolls-Royce given to him by the Chicago Tribune, this is not true. According to notes from the time, the car Smith was driving on the day of the accident was a "small sedan".
Norman Isaac ( 1957-2020). Hit by a motorbike Norman Isaac. Photo:TEMPO TEMPO
The driver of the motorbike fled and there were no witnesses to the incident.
Missing Perhaps these two cartoonists should not technically be on the list, as their deaths could not be confirmed. I add them because in both cases, as stark as it sounds, there is very little hope that they will be found alive, even among those who are still looking for them.
Prageeth Eknaligoda ( 1960 -??) Sandyha and her children (2016). Photo AI Prageeth left his job in Colombo (Sri Lanka) on the night of 24 January 2010 , he said he was going to meet an old friend before returning home. A friend called Prageeth's mobile phone at 8:30 pm, but only heard a strange noise before he was cut off. That was the last he heard of him. He was then 50 years old (1
Sri Lanka's presidential election was two days away.
Prageeth had already been abducted near his home on 28 August 2009. He was taken away with his hands tied and blindfolded in a white van. He was released the next morning.
His wife, Sandya Eknaligoda, who has not stopped looking for him, confessed
Akram Raslan (1978- ??) Akram Raslan, a cartoonist born in Souran (Syria) in 1978, was arrested on 2 October 2012. Since then only rumours have circulated about his legal situation, whereabouts and status.
In 2015, Cartoonists Rights Network International ( CRNI source Souriatna
Murdered Wolinski, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous and Charb (2015). Terrorist attack Source photos Wikipedia On 7 January 2015, two brothers, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, broke into the headquarters of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo
The other victims were a journalist invited by the weekly, Michel Renaud, an elite policeman and Charb's bodyguard, Franck Brinsolaro, (Muslim) policeman Ahmed Merabet and an employee of a maintenance company, Frédéric Boisseau
Naji al-Ali (1936-1987). Shot in the back of the head At about 17:10 on Wednesday 22 July 1987 , Naji al-Ali, a political cartoonist for the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, was shot in the back of the head as he was walking to his office in Ives Street, Knightsbridge.
Al-Ali, 51 , was taken to hospital, where he was in a coma for 37 days until he died on 29 August 1987 . The cartoonist had received several death threats in the years leading up to his murder.
August 2017, british police reopened the case the murder of the Palestinian cartoonist in the hope of receiving some new clue, four years later nothing more has been heard about the investigation.
Other cases Jon Medwick (1962-2024) Fall from 15th floor At around 5:45 a.m. on Tuesday, February 4, 2024, police received a 911 call that cartoonist Jon Medick , 62, had fallen to his death from the 15th floor of his Manhattan, New York, flat in the 300 West 23rd St , where he had lived for more than 10 years.
Media reports suggest that his girlfriend tried to grab him to save his life. According to the New York Post, citing a police source, Medwick's girlfriend, 45, woke up to find him standing by the window. She tried to grab him and restrain him, but he "slipped away".
In almost all the reports, although not directly referring to suicide, it is stated that he was depressed and that on the Sunday before the event, an ambulance picked Jon up and took him to the hospital, although he returned home the same day.
Jon, who worked at home as an illustrator, was occasionally visited by clients who came by to pick up commissions.
As can be read on the surviving copy of what was his website, Jon described himself as a professional illustrator, comic book artist and storyboard artist with years of experience in the advertising and commercial production industry who had worked with commercial and film directors, creating storyboards.
Stuart Carothers (1893-1915). Fall from fifth floor On the night of 3-4 October 1915, cartoonist Stuart Carothers and two friends, R.A. Skinner and H. Bergum, checked into a room on the fifth floor of De Jonghe's Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. A few hours later, at 3:30 a.m., a policeman discovered Carothers' body in the street. His friends recalled that he had suffered a headache that night and had sat by the window, from which he would fall. There were no signs of suicide or murder. Although it could not be established what happened, the police concluded that it was an accident. Carothers was 22 years old.
Also known as Stewart Carothers Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers The Movies Of Haphazard Helen
Thomas Ciryl Long (1897-1922). Death by Lightning Bolt Note in the Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Florida.), 3 July 1922
Thomas Cyril Long, "Cy" Long was the creator and cartoonist of comic strips featuring black characters, including "Mose Bones". He was killed by lightning while participating in a baseball game in his hometown of Newton, North Carolina. He was 24 years old. More info and strips at Stripper's Guide
CY Long's last strip, published posthumously on 15 July 1922.
Ernest Hix ( 1902-1948). Plane crash Cartoonist Ernest Hix died at the age of 41 on September 18, 1948 in a plane crash when the small plane he was travelling in, a Beechcraft 35 Bonanza
Ernest (above) and his brother John (1932) Source The pilot, John M. Lacey and designer Wilmer F. Pemberton were killed in the crash, as was the 43-year-old owner of the aircraft and Hollywood jeweller Eugene Joseff. Joseff, who had a large collection of jewellery, originals and replicas and was the manufacturer and supplier of about 90% of the jewellery used in the films of the era.
Ernest Hix was the brother of the late cartoonist John Hix, the creator of the syndicated cartoon Strange as It Seems
After Ernest's death, his wife, Elsie Huber Hix, continued to produce the Strange as It Seems series More info
Floyd Craver (?-1916). Crushed after falling off a truck The Arizona Copper Camp. (Ray, Arizona.), 16 December 1916
There is no more information about this author, I suppose because he was a fairly young person or because he did not publish in newspapers, was not devoted to cartoons or had limited repercussion. To wit. The note in an Arizona newspaper told the story as follows:
Floyd Craver was killed this afternoon when he fell from a Longyear Co. truck. It was stated to the coroner that Craver was moving on top of the truck load when he fell and his head was crushed under a wheel. Craver had graduated from Phoenix High School two years earlier.
J. *Dorsey (?-1912) Suicide The Atlanta Georgian and News. (Atlanta, Georgia.), 22 June 1912
I can find no further references to this cartoonist and suspect that the name is incomplete due to a printing error or in the scan of the PDF of the note on his death, which read:
CArtoonist commits suicideMemphis
Edward Soden (?-1908). Suicide
Of this cartoonist, who committed suicide in a lurid incident, I have not been able to find any references beyond this brief note in The Detroit Times.
Cartoonist kills mother and commits suicide
New York, Sept. 26 -Edward Soden, a well-known cartoonist and illustrator, devastated by the death of his sister from a haemorrhage, has killed his mother with chloroform and then committed suicide. The bodies of the mother, Mary E. Soden, the daughter, Ella, and the cartoonist, were found today in their home at 258 Greene-ave, Brooklyn, according to police at the Classon-ave police station. The family was in dire straits.
