Above, Elena Steier and comics historian R.C Harvey at the AAEC convention in San Francisco in 2014. 

Cartoonist Elena Steier died earlier this month after engaging in hand-to-hand combat with cancer for the past two years. She was 66. Elena was an outspoken, self-taught artist whose comic strips and editorial cartoons appeared in newspapers across Connecticut, and was syndicated for a time by DBR Media. She drew “The Ramp Rats” for The Airport News, back when niche industry publications existed (and could afford to pay for cartoonists).

She embraced webcomics early on with her “Goth Scouts” and “The Vampire Bed and Breakfast” strips, the latter of which won a Xeric Grant in 2003, and her work became increasingly political and critical of the Bush Administration (see her 2001 cartoon on Putin below). The Daily Cartoonist has more on Elena Steier’s career.

Steier was a long-time member of the AAEC and a spirited and energetic presence at its annual gatherings. Cartoonist Ed Hall wrote on facebook, “One of the first people I met when I joined the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, Elena was truly one of a kind. Immense talent, rapier wit and an ink line that seemed to flow from a secret source. She was kind, giving and never afraid to speak her mind.” In another post, Clay Jones noted “She was very talented and fun to hang out with. She once made fun of me for misspelling Connecticut.”

The AAEC sends its condolences to her family and many, many cartoonist friends.