Steve Breen
{{Short description|American cartoonist (born 1970)}}
{{Infobox comics creator
| image = Steve Breen by Gage Skidmore.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Breen in 2025
| birth_name = Stephen Paul Breen
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1970|04|26}}
| birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation =
| area = Cartoonist, Editorial cartoonist, Illustrator
| cartoonist = y
| awards = Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning (1998, 2009)
| known_for =
| notable works = Grand Avenue (1999–2016)
}}
Stephen Paul Breen (born April 26, 1970) is a nationally syndicated cartoonist. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning twice, in 1998 and 2009.{{cite web |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/215 |title=Editorial Cartooning |publisher=The Pulitzer Prizes |access-date=February 26, 2021}}{{Cite news |title=U-T's Steve Breen wins 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning |last1= Hall |first1=Matthew T. |last2=Jiménez |first2=Jose Luis |date=20 April 2009 |work=Union Tribune |url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-bn20pulitzer-breen-2009apr20-htmlstory.html}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090423064944/http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/20/bn20pulitzer-breen/ |date=2009-04-23 }}
Biography
He graduated from Huntington Beach High School in 1988 and attended the University of California, Riverside, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science. It was at UCR that he started drawing editorial cartoons for his school paper, The Highlander.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}
In 1991, Breen won the Scripps Howard Charles M. Schulz Award as the top college cartoonist and the John Locher Memorial Award for Outstanding College Editorial Cartoonist. He was influenced by cartoonists such as Jeff MacNelly, Paul Conrad, Pat Oliphant and Don Wright.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}
Breen was about to become a high school history teacher when the Asbury Park Press offered him a job in the art department in July 1994. He became the full-time editorial cartoonist there in 1996.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}
Breen's comic strip Grand Avenue, which is syndicated by United Feature Syndicate and appears in more than 150 newspapers across the country, was launched in 1999. In 2005, Breen's colleague Mike Thompson came on board to help write the strip, and in 2009 became official co-creator.{{Cite news |last=Gardner |first=Alan |date=2009-02-05 |title=Mike Thompson joins Steve Breen on Grande Avenue|url=https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2009/02/05/mike-thompson-joins-steve-breen-on-grande-avenue/|access-date=2022-11-20 |work=The Daily Cartoonist |language=en-US}} In 2014 Thompson took over most writing & art duties;{{Cite news |last=Willett|first=Johanna |title=Comic strip creators talk life, laughs|url=https://tucson.com/lifestyles/leisure/comic-strip-creators-talk-life-laughs/article_bf44f720-3790-5ec2-a328-61fc2040209f.html|date=2014-07-13|access-date=2022-11-20|website=Arizona Daily Star|language=en}} as of 2016 the strip is entirely by Thompson.{{Cite web| url=https://www.gocomics.com/grand-avenue |title=Grand Avenue page |work=GoComics |access-date=December 13, 2018}}
In July 2001, Breen returned to his home state to join the staff of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Breen left the Union-Tribune in 2023 and joined the San Diego nonprofit news website inewsource later in the year.{{cite web | url=https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/11/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words-meet-the-nonprofit-newsrooms-hiring-editorial-cartoonists/ | title=A picture is worth a thousand words? Meet the nonprofit newsrooms hiring editorial cartoonists }}
His editorial cartoons are nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate (which acquired former syndicate Copley News Service in 2008). They regularly appear in The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.
Breen is the author and illustrator of several children's books: Stick, Violet the Pilot, The Secret of Santa's Island,{{citation needed|date=August 2017}} and Woodpecker Wants a Waffle, for which he won the 2017 New Hampshire State Library Ladybug Picture Book Award.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nh.gov/nhsl/bookcenter/programs/ladybug.html|title = Ladybug Award, Center for the Book, New Hampshire State Library}} Breen also created the cartoon Powerbirds for NBC Universal-owned children's network, Universal Kids, based on his series of children's books.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.creators.com/editorialcartoons/steve-breen.html Creators.com]
- [https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/steve-breen San Diego Union-Tribune]
- [https://osucartoons.pastperfectonline.com/vocabulary?keyword=Breen%2C+Steve%2C+1970-&letter=B&searchtype=creator&showsearch=true Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Art Database]
{{PulitzerPrize EditorialCartooning 1976–2000}}
{{PulitzerPrize EditorialCartooning 2001–2025}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breen, Steve}}
Category:University of California, Riverside alumni
Category:American editorial cartoonists
Category:Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners
Category:The San Diego Union-Tribune people