Mark Fiore is an American

political cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curre ...

specializing in

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...

-animated editorial cartoons, whom ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' called "the undisputed guru of the form". Fiore lives in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, and his cartoons have appeared in numerous American papers and a number of web sites. He studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approxi ...

and was a staff cartoonist for the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

''. He left newspapers for animated online comics in 2001,Summers, Nick (December 18, 2006). "Satire: Singing a Different 'Toon. ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', p. 14. and he currently makes animated editorial cartoons for his web site markfiore.com, from which he also sells DVDs of his cartoons. He is a member of the

Association of American Editorial Cartoonists The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) is a professional association concerned with promoting the interests of staff, freelance and student editorial cartoonists in the United States, Canada and Mexico. With nearly 200 members, it ...

. Fiore's comics were included in

Ted Rall Frederick Theodore Rall III (born August 26, 1963) is an American columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cart ...

's '' Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists,'' along with other web-comics such as ''

Dinosaur Comics ''Dinosaur Comics'' is a constrained comics, constrained webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. It is also known as "Qwantz", after the site's domain name, "qwantz.com". The first comic was posted on February 1, 2003, although there were earlier ...

'', ''

Diesel Sweeties ''Diesel Sweeties'' is a webcomic and former newspaper comic strip written by Richard Stevens III (R Stevens). The comic began in 2000,Rall, Ted (2006). '' Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists'', New York: Nantier, Beall, Minoustchin ...

'', ''

Fetus-X ''Fetus-X'' was a weekly romantic horror comic written and drawn by Eric Millikin and Casey Sorrow. Millikin is an American artist and former human anatomy lab embalmer and dissectionist.Zabel, Joe (June 14, 2004).Cutting Up The Dead: An interv ...

'', and ''

The Perry Bible Fellowship ''The Perry Bible Fellowship'' (abbreviated to ''PBF'') is a webcomic and newspaper comic strip by Nicholas Gurewitch. It first appeared in the Syracuse University newspaper ''The Daily Orange'' in 2001. The comics are usually three or four ...

''.Rall, Ted (2006). '' Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists'', New York: Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine. . In their review of ''Attitude 3'', the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

's ''

Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...

'' called Fiore's cartoons a standout for their "unique and personal" vision.Flagg, Gordon (August 2006). "Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists". ''

'', p. 23. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010, the first ever for his genre of editorial cartoons.

Recurring characters

In some of his Flash cartoons, Fiore makes use of several characters more than once. Some of those characters include: * Suzie Newsykins * Dogboy & Mr. Dan—an anthropomorphic dog chats who with his friend Mr. Dan, who is rabidly conservative * Buster Bunker The Friendly Nuke—a nuke * Knuckles—a slow man in an executioner's mask who loves torturing Guantanamo prisoners * Flamey McGassy * Ouchie—a talking bandaid * Captain Killmore * Snuggly the Security Bear—a rather sadistic teddy bear who puts a positive spin on domestic

spying Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining Secrecy, secret or Confidentiality, confidential information (Intelligence assessment, intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the Consent ...

and

wiretap Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

s * Right-wing Ralphie—a squat lawyer with pixie wings who fights for homosexuals to gain restitution for being "forced" into marriage; after the passage of California's

Proposition 8 Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage; it passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned in cou ...

, Ralphie celebrates the "protection of heterosexual marriage"; he is a caricature of

Ralph Reed Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. (born June 24, 1961) is an American political consultant and lobbyist, best known as the first executive director of the Christian Coalition of America, Christian Coalition during the early 1990s. He sought the Republican ...

, the former Religious Right leader * Buzzie the Fly—a

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

fly who updates the nation on the

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

reconstruction, especially the living conditions of Hurricane Katrina refugees

Awards

Fiore was awarded an Online Journalism Award by the

Online News Association The Online News Association (ONA), founded in 1999, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Washington D.C., United States. It is the world's largest association of digital journalists, with more than 2,000 members. The majority of ON ...

and the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

. He was nominated for the National Cartoonist Society New Media Award in 2000 and he won it for 2001 and 2002. He also won the 2005 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the category of cartoons.

Pulitzer Prize

Fiore won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He is the first cartoonist to win an editorial cartooning Pulitzer for an entry of entirely online animations, and his winning work appears on SFGate.com, the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' web site. The Pulitzer Prize committee, in a statement, said that "his biting wit, extensive research and ability to distill complex issues n the web siteset a high standard for an emerging form of commentary."Animated cartoons win Pulitzer for Mark Fiore
. ''forum.bcdb.com'', April 13, 2010.

References

External links

Personal YouTube of Mark FiorePersonal home page of Mark FioreNCS AwardsRFK Awards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiore, Mark American editorial cartoonists Colorado College alumni Living people Artists from San Francisco Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners 1970 births