Jeff Danziger, Whose Pen Is No Pal to Pols,
To Be Luncheon Speaker on February 19
Jeff Danziger: Self Portrait
THIS IS WHAT SOME PRETTY SAVVY folks have said about Jeff Danziger, a syndicated political cartoonist whose body of work appears on the editorial pages of hundreds of newspapers around the country:
“Jeff Danziger is everything a great political cartoonist should be in this over-reverential world: savage, merciless, accurate, ribald and blessed with a lovely eye and hand.” — Author John Le Carré.
“Jeff Danziger’s muscular line cracks like a whip, flailing into shreds the hypocrisies that make the body politic. Drawing like a dream, he renders these smart, witty (often hilarious) comic nightmares.” — Cartoonist and author Jules Feiffer
“The pen may be mightier than the sword, but in Jeff Danziger’s hand, the point can be lethal.” — Bob Schieffer, CBS News
Danziger, who has been drawing politicians — and drawing blood from politicians —since at least the 1980s, has been described by others as slightly to the left of Genghis Khan, but he calls himself an equal-opportunity satirist. Right-wingers might disagree. Danziger was once listed on conservative writer Bernard Goldberg’s list of “100 People Who Are Screwing Up America,” a distinction the cartoonist calls “an honor.” He seemed to have found a particularly tempting target in the administration of George W. Bush. Many of his cartoons about those years have been collected in the anthologies “Wreckage Begins With ‘W’” and “Blood, Debt and Fears,” two of the 11 books he’s published to date. In 2014, he published “Conscience of a Cartoonist,” a collection of his post-9/11 work. His other books include a novel, “Rising Like the Tucson,” a dark comedy set during the late stages of the Vietnam War. Danziger had seen the war up close. He was drafted into the military in 1967 and served as a linguist and intelligence officer in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star and an Air Medal before being honorably discharged in 1971.
Born in New York in 1943, he graduated from the University of Denver and then bought a farm in Vermont. Following his service in Vietnam, he returned to Vermont and began drawing for the Montpelier Times Argus and the Rutland Herald in 1975. Five years later, he was a part-time cartoonist for the New York Daily News and in 1986 moved to the Christian Science Monitor in Boston, where he was staff cartoonist until 1996. He returned to New York, syndicated by the Tribune Syndicate. In 2002, he joined the New York Times Syndicate. His work has been seen in such newspapers and magazines as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Forbes, The New Yorker, Le Monde, Izvestia, The International Herald Tribune, and Die Welt. He has contributed to the Rutland Herald continuously since 1975. He was honored by the Overseas Press Club in 1998, won the Herblock Prize in 2006 and the Thomas Nast Award in 2008. Twice, he was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize.
He’ll be all ours when he speaks at our Feb. 19 luncheon at the National Arts Club, and he’ll speak in a room decked out with some of his cartoons. We expect a good crowd, so please make your reservations now.
— Mort Sheinman, Web Editor
The date: Wednesday, February 19, 2020
The time: Noon
The place: The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South
HOW TO RESERVE: You may reserve via Eventbrite by linking to
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jeff-danziger-a-cartoonist-view-of-the-world-tickets-90236262089
When you reach that site, click on the word “TICKETS” and follow the directions. You will then receive an email confirming your reservation. You may continue to reserve by calling the Silurian reservation line at 212-532-0887. Please spell your name clearly and include a contact number or your email address. Lunch prices are $55 for members, $65 for guests, payable at the door by cash (exact change, please), check or credit card. Regardless of how you reserve, if you’re bringing a guest, make sure to give us your guest’s name. Each member is allowed to reserve for one guest, with additional guests put on a waiting list, pending a final count. One other reminder. Because we must give a final tally to the National Arts Club at noon on Feb. 17 — the Monday before the luncheon — we cannot cancel any reservations after that time. No-shows will be asked to pay for their seats.
