Bagley guest cartoonist: Steve Benson

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Cartoonist's Note: I am away from my drawing table organizing the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention. In the meantime, I am featuring some of the attendees.

Steve Benson and I go way back. In fact, all the way back to 1978 and The Daily Universe, the BYU student newspaper, where we shared editorial cartooning duties on the opinion page. To say that Steve's BYU-nurtured politics have changed over the years is an understatement, but what hasn't changed is his take-no-prisoners-and-shoot-the-wounded style of cartooning.

Steve gained attention for standing up to Arizona Governor, and fellow Mormon, Evan Mecham, who warned Steve that his eternal soul was in peril if he didn't change his tune. Steve went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and Mecham went on to be indicted and impeached.

Steve now skewers religious bigotry the way his grandfather, LDS Church President Ezra Taft Benson, used to warn about the creeping peril of godless communism.

Steve will be leading an art workshop on how to create political cartoons at The Salt Lake Main Library on Saturday, June 29, 12:30pm. I couldn't think of a better instructor on how to get your point across while smashing as many icons as possible.