Stuart Carlson, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel political cartoonist, died Friday June 10, at 66, the newspaper reports.
Carlson, a West Bend native who earned an arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, served as a cartoonist for The Milwaukee Sentinel and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 1983 to 2008. He was first hired by the Milwaukee Sentinel as a lifestyle journalist in the reporting department.
Before joining the Milwaukee newspaper, he wrote obituaries and made cartoons for the West Allis position/star and worked as a reporter covering courts, crime and local news for the West Bend News.
In an obituary for the newspaper, the former Sentinel Diary editor Keith Spore called Carlson “the best to ever create a political cartoon in Wisconsin”.
“He was not only exceptionally talented as a cartoonist, but one of the nicest men I have ever met,” said Jerry Ressler, former Journal Sentinel columnist. “You couldn’t not love him; he was such a good guy.
After accepting a takeover of The Sentinel Journal in 2008, Carlson continued to work as a syndicated cartoonist at over 30 newspapers across the country.
His latest cartoon – drawn during a brief period at home between hospitalizations last month – was a commentary on semi-automatic rifles after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.