Bruce McKinley Shanks (January 29, 1908 – April 12, 1980)''Florida Death Index, 1877-1998'' was an American editorial cartoonist who worked for the '' Buffalo Evening News'' during the middle of the 20th century. There he won the annual

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning The Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary is one of the fourteen Pulitzer Prizes that is annually awarded for journalism in the United States. It is the successor to the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning awarded from 1922 t ...

for "The Thinker" (August 10, 1957), which showed "the dilemma of union membership when confronted by corrupt leaders in some labor unions". Shanks was born in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, the son of George Shanks, who owned a local sign painting business. From 1924 to 1927, he attended Lafayette High School, where he was taught by art instructor Elizabeth Weiffenbach, who later (1936-1939) also influenced the style of science-fiction cover artist

Kelly Freas Frank Kelly Freas (August 27, 1922 – January 2, 2005) was an American science fiction and fantasy artist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He was known as the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists" and he was the second artist inducted b ...

. Shanks began his employment with the ''Buffalo Evening News'' as a copy boy. His first cartoons appeared in the sports pages. One character created by Shanks was Olaf Fub, a name derived from "Buffalo" spelled backward. A drawing of Fub and the phrase, "Olaf Fub sez ..." continued to introduce the commentary of ''Evening News'' writers on local events even well after Shanks' death. Another character who appeared frequently in Shanks' editorial cartoons was John Q. Public. That name was created by Vaughn Shoemaker, another editorial cartoonist, and is now a

placeholder name Placeholder names are words that can refer to things or people whose names do not exist, are tip of the tongue, temporarily forgotten, are not relevant to the salient point at hand, are to avoid stigmatization, are unknowable/unpredictable in ...

in the United States. Shanks' cartoons were widely distributed by syndicators throughout the U.S. and the world at the height of his career, so he may have contributed to the establishment of the placeholder. Beside the Pulitzer, Shanks won eight

Freedoms Foundation The Freedoms Foundation is an American non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian educational organization, founded in 1949. The foundation is located adjacent to the Valley Forge National Historical Park, near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Bill of R ...

awards and several Page One Awards from the

American Newspaper Guild The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practices ...

. During World War II, Shanks served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945.''U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010'' He died in

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoas ...

in 1980.

References

1908 births 1980 deaths American editorial cartoonists Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners Artists from Buffalo, New York The Buffalo News Pulitzer Prize winners United States Army personnel of World War II Lafayette High School (Buffalo, New York) alumni {{US-cartoonist-stub