Jack Ohman

Jack Ohman
Born	(1960-09-01) September 1, 1960 Portland, Oregon, United States
Nationality	American
Education	Portland State University

Jack Ohman (born September 1, 1960) is the editorial cartoonist at The Sacramento Bee, in Sacramento, California. His work is syndicated nationwide to over 300 newspapers by Tribune Media Services. He previously was the cartoonist at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., leaving after being offered the job of editorial cartoonist by The Sacramento Bee and succeeding his late friend, Rex Babin.

Biography

Ohman worked as a political aide for the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) during his high school years in Minnesota. At age 17, Ohman worked at the Minnesota Daily, the student newspaper of the University of Minnesota. At age 19, Ohman was the youngest cartoonist ever to be nationally syndicated. His first daily newspaper job was at The Columbus Dispatch, where he was hired in 1981. He then moved to the Detroit Free Press in 1982, and went to The Oregonian in 1983.

Ohman was a regular art contributor to ABC News Nightline between 1984 and 1986.

In 1986, through sales of copies of his cartoons about the space shuttle Challenger accident, Ohman raised over $30,000 for the families of the astronauts. It was the fifth largest private donation in the United States. In 2001, he raised over $30,000 for the United Way September 11 Fund.

Ohman has an honors degree in U.S. history from Portland State University. He is an adjunct associate professor of political science at the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. He was a regular contributor to Foreign Policy and Money magazines. Ohman is also the creator of the syndicated comic strip Mixed Media, which he drew from 1994 to 1999 and which appeared in over 170 newspapers.

In 2006, Ohman was voted one of the top five cartoonists in the United States by the readers of The Week magazine..

On October 29, 2012, it was announced that Ohman was stepping down as The Oregonian's editorial cartoonist. He has been hired by The Sacramento Bee, in Sacramento, California.

Work

His work regularly appears in most major U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Seattle Times. He has also been featured in many magazines and high-profile websites. Ohman is also a noted fly fishing humorist, and has published four books on the subject, including the best-selling Fear of Fly Fishing, Get The Net, An Inconvenient Trout, and Angler Management, a book of essays. He has published 10 books overall.

Awards

Ohman has won the 1980 Sigma Delta Chi Mark of Excellence Award, the 1995 Thomas Nast Award from the Overseas Press Club, the 2001 Harrison E. Salisbury Award from the University of Minnesota, the 2002 National Headliner Award, the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award (Cartoon category), the 2010 Society of Professional Journalists Award, and the 2012 Scripps Howard Journalism Award. Ohman was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, where the judges cited his entry for his "clever daily cartoons and a distinctive Sunday panel on local issues in which his reporting was as important as his artistic execution."

Books

• Back to the ’80s (1986)
• Drawing Conclusions (1987)
• Fear of Fly Fishing (1988)
• Fishing Bass-ackwards (1991)
• Why Johnny Can't Putt (1993)
• Media Mania (1995)
• Do I Have To Draw You A Picture? (1997)
• Get the Net! (1998)
• An Inconvenient Trout (2008)
• Angler Management (2009)
• Illustrator, Blowing Smoke: The Wild and Whimsical World of Cigars (1997), Brian McConnachie, author

External links

• Jack Ohman page at the Sacramento Bee
• The Oregonian archive of Jack Ohman cartoons