Over the weekend, the Minneapolis Star Tribune made it official: Steve Sack is retiring after almost 42 years at the paper. The influential and irrepressible Pulitzer Prize winner had told fellow cartoonists earlier in the week he had decided to step down from his long-time staff position to pursue his other artistic endeavors. Read Steve’s goodbye letter here.

Sack was one of the last of an old breed: the staff editorial cartoonist who not only spent virtually his entire career with one publication but was the core of the newspaper’s brand and community presence. The Star Tribune ran this tribute to their cartoonist on Sunday: https://www.startribune.com/a-cartoonist-and-a-gentleman/600167388/

The Daily Cartoonist took a look at Sack’s run in the Minneapolis paper, and how his style has developed over the decades. The newspaper has not decided if they will hire a successor, though we’d be happy to suggest a few names…
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/04/23/steve-sack-retires-from-star-tribune/

While Sack’s day job was wrapped up in the “dead tree media” of newsprint, he was a relentless experimenter, a painter and sculptor in traditional mediums and early adaptor of technology including digital art, online animation and 3-D printing. Here’s a local TV news segment highlighting the big exhibit Steve put on a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67_qnrUwKCA&t=1s

Among cartoonists, Steve Sack is known as a cartoonist’s cartoonist, pushing the form to new levels, and a mentor generous with his time and advice. Congrats, Steve; we can’t wait to see what you do next!