COLUMBUS, OHIO — South Carolina cartoonist Steve Stegelin is the 2022 recipient of the “Rex Babin Memorial Award for Excellence in Local Cartooning.” The panel of judges also named Seattle’s David Horsey as finalist.
The prize was announced Saturday, Oct. 8, at the annual convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), held during the CXC Festival in Columbus, Ohio.
The three-judge panel of cartoonists wrote, “Steve Stegelin brings a fresh, independent drawing style and delicious snark — two things Rex Babin valued greatly — to the pages of the weekly Charleston City Paper. Stegelin’s fierce mockery of the entrenched power structure and the retrograde cultural politics of his red state feels meaningful.
“His bold and unique graphic style renders everyone, including Governor Henry McMasters, as if they jumped off a 1990s alt-weekly comics page. His tongue-in-cheek tackling of cynical political redistricting, mask hysteria, local gun-culture and shameful treatment of women’s reproductive rights in South Carolina all led the jury to unanimously deem Stegelin’s entry worthy of the prize.”
“One of the few things Rex Babin spoke of with true reverence was the magnificent impact of the local cartoon,” said Matt Davies, last year’s Babin Award winner and one of the judges for this year’s contest. “We know Rex would be thrilled to see how many great local cartoons are still being eagerly inked and published, belying, against all odds, the oft-repeated complaint of the increasing dearth of local news.”
“And while we’re on the subject,” added judge Rob Rogers, “a massive appreciative, Babinian tip-o-the-pen is due to the editors of the Charleston City Paper. It’s notable they feature not just Steve Stegelin, but also the excellent local work of previous Babin Finalist Robert Ariail.”
This was the second year in a row Seattle Times cartoonists David Horsey was named as a finalist. The judges wrote, “Dave Horsey is a skilled, decorated veteran editorial cartoonist who understands the importance of satirizing the local maladies of his beloved Seattle. Whether it’s toilet bowl cruise ships sullying Elliot Bay, snooty pretentiousness of Belleview (next to the mall), or childish city budget politics, David’s regional opinions in the Times are worthy of note.”
Stegelin now joins Davies and Rogers as a judge for next year’s Babin Award. The Babin is one of the only journalism award for editorial cartoonists that is selected by a jury of peers.
About the Rex Babin Award:
The AAEC established the award to honor the life and career of the political cartoonist Rex Babin, the editorial cartoonist for the Albany Times-Union and The Sacramento Bee, who passed away in 2012 at age 49 following a long fight with cancer. Babin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, and received the Berryman Award from the National Press Foundation the same year. His fellow cartoonists elected him President of the AAEC in 2009, and he was honored posthumously with the Mark Twain Award for Journalistic Excellence in 2015.
About the AAEC:
For 65 years, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists has been the professional association concerned with promoting the interests of staff, freelance and student editorial cartoonists in North America, including political illustrators and the growing field of comics journalists. The AAEC is active in First Amendment, free speech, and journalists’ rights issues worldwide.
For more information contact Jack Ohman at jackin60@gmail.com or JP Trostle at japenet@gmail.com
