(1908-1980)
American
Born: Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.
Bruce McKinley Shanks was born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1908 and is best known for his editorial cartoons in the Buffalo Evening News. He had no formal art schooling, although his interest in cartooning started to develop during his years at Lafayette High School. He began his career with the News in 1927 as a copy boy and soon began drawing cartoons for various local newpapers, including the Buffalo Express and the Buffalo Times. He joined the staff of the Buffalo Evening News in 1933 and remained there for the next four decades, aside from his time working for Military Intelligence during World War II.
His illustrations originally appeared in the sports section, but in 1951 Shanks's work began showing up on the editorial page and was reprinted in approximately 30 newspapers throughout the country. (The cartoons were not syndicated, and Shanks allowed papers to run them free of charge as long as they gave him credit.) One popular character he created was "Olaf Fub" ("Buffalo" spelled backward), who continued to appear in the News long after Shanks left. The cartoonist was an outspoken critic of Senator Joseph McCarthy. The artist won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1958 for his August 10, 1957 cartoon “The Thinker,” which, the Pulitzer committee noted, depicted "the dilemma of union membership when confronted by racketeering leaders in some labor unions."
Shanks also won twelve Freedom Foundation awards, the National Safety Council Award in 1960, several Page One Awards from the American Newspaper Guild, and recognition from the National Fight Against Communism. In 1964 he published 1964 Cartoon Review by Bruce Shanks, Pulitzer Prize Winning Editorial Cartoonist, which was followed by Shanks for the Memories (1968) and Cartoon Review of '72 (1972). Shanks was married to Louise Shanks for more than 30 years. He retired from the News in 1974 and died in 1980.
The Rare Book Room at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library holds original prints of 8 of his editorial cartoons. In 1976, the Buffalo Evening News donated more than 1,000 of Shanks's cartoons to the Burchfield [Penney] Art Center, and in 2010-11 the Center exhibited a selection of his work from the 1960s and 1970s.
For more information on the life and career of Bruce Shanks, see http://www.buffalolib.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Rare%20Book%20Room/Bruce%20Shanks%20Report.pdf.