Tom Toles

|Infobox Comics creator


name = Tom Toles
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birthname = Thomas Gregory Toles
birthdate = birth date and age|1951|10|22
location = Buffalo, New York, USA
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
area = cartoonist
alias =
notable works = Editorial cartoons
awards =

Thomas Gregory Toles (born October 22, 1951) is a left-of-center American political cartoonist. He is the winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Similar to Oliphant's use of his character Punk, Toles also tends to include a small doodle, usually a small caricature of himself at his desk, in the margin of his strip.

Toles left "The Buffalo News" in 2002, accepting an offer from "The Washington Post" to replace Herblock, their late, legendaryFact|date=May 2008 cartoonist, and is under contract by Universal Press Syndicate. Part of his acceptance of his new job required him to give up his cartoon strip Randolph Itch 2 a.m., a one-panel cartoon based on Toles' thoughts while battling insomnia. Toles was replaced at the Buffalo News by Adam Zyglis.

His cartoons appear in more than 200 newspapers throughout the country and on several websites. He received the National Cartoonist Society Editorial Cartoon Award for 2003. Toles and his wife Gretchen have two children: Amanda and Seth.

A cartoon published January 29, 2006 attracted the ire of the Pentagon in the form of a protest letter signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. With regard to some recent assessments of the United States Army, the cartoon depicted the Army as a quadruple amputee soldier with a doctor resembling Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, declaring the Army "battle hardened". [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/toles_main.html?name=Toles&date=01292006] The Joint Chiefs of Staff stated, "Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon [is] beyond tasteless." Toles was quoted responding, "I think it's a little bit unfair in their reading of the cartoon to imply that is what it's about."

On February 14 2006 Tom Tomorrow made a cartoon comparing the reactions to the Muhammad cartoons to the Tom Toles cartoons pointing out the alleged double standards. [http://action.credomobile.com/comics/2006/02/cartoon_controversies.html]

On March 15, 2007, Toles published a cartoon showing a letter critical of General Peter Pace, who had recently referred to homosexual acts as "immoral" and compared homosexuality to adultery.Fact|date=May 2008 Toles' letter read:

To Peter Pace, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of StaffI was extremely disappointed to hear you question the morality of some of the men and women who serve this country in uniform, many of whom have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds. I find it beyond tasteless.These are brave men and women with a sense of purpose and self-commitment from the cities and farmlands of this great nation. I believe you have done a disservice to your institution and your reputation by using such a callous description of those who have volunteered to defend their nation.Your pen pal,Tom Toles

The author's note at the bottom of the cartoon reads, "P.S. I trust this will sound familiar."Fact|date=May 2008

On June 26, 2008, Tom published a cartoon showing an elephant about to fly into the upper floors of a building labeled "Obama HQ," made to resemble the moments before passenger jets crashed into the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001. The cartoon is supplemented with an Obama supporter asking, "So what "are" the chances of a terrorist attack before November?"

The author's note at the bottom of the cartoon reads, "Testing for appeasement."

In 2008, Toles began performing with the rock band Suspicious Package at venues around Washington, D.C. The band consists of Toles on drums, HUD senior official Bryan Greene on guitar, Josh Meyer of the L.A. Times on lead guitar, Tim Burger of Bloomberg News on bass, and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative senior official Christina Sevilla on keyboard. The band debuted May 30, 2008 before a maximum-capacity crowd at The Red and the Black in Northeast D.C.

External links

* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/opinion/tolestom/ "Washington Post"] - Tom Toles
* [http://www.reuben.org/ncs/awards.asp NCS Awards]
* [http://www.ucomics.com/tomtoles/ Tom Toles comics site]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/toles_main.html?name=Toles&date=01292006 The editorial cartoon about the quadruple amputee]
* [http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=7196 Tom Toles Interview]
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