Irwin Caplan

born Seattle, Washington, 1919; died Seattle, Washington, 2007

BiographyIrwin Caplan was an award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic artist. He began taking art classes in grade school and created murals for Garfield High School while a student there. He received a BFA degree from the University of Washington before enlisting in the Army. He served as an illustrator for military publications during WWII.

After the war Caplan settled in New York where he was a frequent contributor to Collier’s, Life, Esquire, and other national publications. He also began drawing two nationally syndicated cartoons, “Famous Last Words” for The Saturday Evening Post and “48 States of Mind”.

Caplan returned to Seattle in 1948 and formed Graphic Studios for commercial and advertising work. He also continued his cartooning and began painting, joining the Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters and exhibiting work in the Northwest Annuals as well as in exhibitions at Seattle Art Museum, the Henry Art Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Gallery of Art, as well as the Seattle World’s Fair. He taught at the University of Washington School of Art starting in 1954 and also for Seattle Central Community College. In 1972, he was named cartoonist of the year by the National Cartoonists Society.

[from obituary published in Seattle Times Feb 25, 2007, accessed October 6, 2011]

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