CARTOONIST PROFILE

Bio

Bruce Plante knew, while growing up in Texarkana, Ark., that drawing and humor were in his future. He began drawing cartoons in the second grade and began performing standup comedy in the sixth grade through 2022.

He graduated the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts in 1978.

Bruce worked as a staff artist / editorial cartoonist at the Arkansas Democrat (1978 -1981), for The Fayetteville (N.C.) Times (1981-84) and the Potomac (VA) News (1985). In 1985, Bruce became the first staff editorial cartoonist for The Chattanooga Times and held that position for 22 years.

In 1989, he created Plante Ink syndicate which distributed his editorial cartoons to 40 subscribers throughout the United States and the world. His cartoons have appeared in The New York Times, USA Today,The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Newsweek International (Europe), Newsweek Japan, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Discover, CBS, CNN, college and high school textbooks and even the Iowa Achievement Test.

On Oct. 22, 2007 Bruce was lured away from Chattanooga to Tulsa Oklahoma to take the position of editorial cartoonist for the Tulsa World. Bruce is no longer employed by the Tulsa World. He now works for CagleCartoons.com.

Plante won the 2002-2003 Fischetti Award for best national editorial cartoon. While in Fayetteville NC he received the Silver Gavel Award for Public Service from the American Bar Association. He has been a guest panelist at the Harvard University Institute of Politics. In 2015, he was named a public fellow (studying humor) for the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities at the University of Tulsa.

Bruce served as the president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He was the founding Chairman of the Editorial Cartooning Initiative and is currently serving as Vice President. He also won the Ink Bottle Award for service to the AAEC.

He and his wife, Betsy, celebrated their 46th anniversary in July. They have 2 sons, Jonathan (40) and Benjamin (33). In June 2023 Bruce and Betsy celebrated the birth of their grandson from father Jonathan and mother Melissa, Nolan Emery Plante.