Gary Varvel

Gary Varvel (born 1957) is an American editorial cartoonist. Varvel was the editorial cartoonist for Indianapolis Star from 1994 to 2019. He was the chief artist for The Indianapolis News for 16 years. His works are syndicated with Creators Syndicate.

Career Cartooning Varvel was inspired by Mad when he was younger, as well as by artist Pat Oliphant, cartoonist Mike Peters, and editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly. He was awarded the H. Dean Evans Legacy Award for community service in 2006.

In the week before Thanksgiving in 2014, the Indianapolis Star published a cartoon by Varvel that was widely criticized as being racist. In the cartoon, a white family is seen inside their dining room at a dinner table with an unhappy father holding a baked turkey saying "Thanks to the President's immigration order, we'll be having extra guests this Thanksgiving," while darker-skinned people can be seen climbing through their window. The Star later removed the mustache of one of the intruders, and executive editor Jeff Taylor deleted the cartoon entirely and issued an apology one day later. In the apology, Taylor wrote, "Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive in his attempt to express his strong views about President Barack Obama's decision to temporarily prevent the deportation of millions of immigrants living and working illegally in the United States." In 2018, another cartoon spurred an apology by the Indianapolis Star after some readers viewed Varvel's message as demeaning to women and sexual assault victims.

In 2019, he retired from the Indianapolis Star. In the cartoon, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, is depicted with a Jewish nose, stealing a wallet out of U.S. President Joe Biden's pocket. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the illustration "the worst kind of antisemitic content." The Sun later apologized for publishing Varvel's comic, saying it did not meet their editorial standards and that Varvel's work would no longer be used.

Writing Varvel co-wrote The Board (a 2008 short film) and The War Within (a 2014 film) with his son, Brett. Both films were produced by House of Grace Films, Brett's Christian film production company.

Selected awards and honors In addition to the following selected awards and honors, Varvel is a fifteen-time winner of the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists' Award for Best Editorial Cartoon and a thirteen-time winner of the Best Editorial Cartoonist Award in the Hoosier State Press Association.

Year Organization Award title,Category Work Result Refs 2006 H. Dean Evans Legacy Award,Community service n/a 2011 Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award n/a

Personal life Varvel was born in 1957 in Indianapolis, Indiana to Forest and Priscilla Varvel, and grew up in Danville, Indiana. He has three children with his wife, Carol.