Edward Daniel Kuekes (February 2, 1901 – January 13, 1987)[1][2][3] was an Americaneditorial cartoonist. Working for theCleveland, OhioPlain Dealer, he won the 1953Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.
Born inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, his family moved toBerea, Ohio in 1913.[2] He graduated fromBerea High School in 1918. After graduatingBaldwin–Wallace College, he studied art atCleveland School of Art and theChicago Academy of Fine Arts.[4] Early influences on his work wereGaar Williams,Ding Darling, andBilly Ireland.[5] His career at thePlain Dealer began in 1922 as understudy to editorial cartoonistHal Donahey.[2] Kuekes handled general art chores for thePlain Dealer, such as illustrating news events. Over the years he drew a number of regular features for the paper, including a movie-themed feature calledCloseups, an editorial cartoon calledAll in a Week, and a Sunday feature calledCartoonist Looks at the News.[4] For much of the 1940s, his trademark was a rabbit named "The Kernel", which came from his work as an amateur stage magician.[2] Following Donahey's death in 1949, Kuekes became chief editorial cartoonist of thePlain Dealer.[2]
Kuekes won the Pulitzer Prize for aKorean War cartoon called "Aftermath". In the cartoon, two soldiers carry a third on a stretcher. One asks "Wonder if he voted?" while the other replies "No, he wasn't old enough." (In the United States, the voting age was not lowered from 21 to 18 until the passage of the26th Amendment in 1971.) In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Kuekes won threeFreedoms Foundation medals in 1949, 1950, and 1951, aSilver T-Square in 1953, and aChristopher Award in 1955.[3][6]
Kuekes also drew a number ofcomic strips. With writerOlive Ray Scott, he drew the stripAlice in Wonderland and its accompanying stripKnurl the Gnome forUnited Features Syndicate in 1934.[7] For thePlain Dealer, he drew the Sunday comic stripFunny Fables from 1935 to 1937 and this work was collected in a 1938 book,Funny Fables: Modern Interpretations of Famous Fabulists.[3][4] WithSteve Freely, he drew the daily panel stripDo You Believe for theLaFave Newspaper Features from 1955 to 1962.[7]
Kuekes died inOklahoma City, Oklahoma.[2]
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