By Ed Otte

“Political cartooning is a dying art in the United States,” Mike Keefe said.  “Around the world, political cartoonists are dying for their art.”

Keefe illustrated his March 25 discussion at the Denver Press Club with a PowerPoint series of his cartoons. The program, sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, was taped by Denver Media Services and will be broadcast at a later date on Channel 8.

“Cartoonists are on a hit list,” the former Denver Post editorial page cartoonist said. “The horrific things that happened in Paris also happened in Stockholm and Norway.”

Mike Keefe, former Denver Post editorial cartoonist

Seventeen people – including three cartoonists – were killed in a Jan. 7 terrorist attack at the Paris editorial offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and at a kosher supermarket. The Charlie Hebdo shootings were in response to the magazine’s cartoon portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad. The gunmen were identified as European Muslim extremists.

Reaction to the killings reflected a resolve against terrorism, and support for freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

“Response to Charlie Hebdo was incredible.” Keefe said. “There was widespread outrage to the deaths. The protests were in support of free expression of opinion. There was an amazing response by cartoonists to it around the world. I think support is still high for Charlie Hebdo.”

Many of the cartoons the Pulitzer Prize winner showed depicted the hypocrisy and danger of “religious extremism” in the United States and abroad.

“I prefer to focus on those who twist their religion to serve their own morbid interests,” he said. “This whole business of religion and life is a favorite topic. Yes, I’ve had editors who said I went too far. Especially when I was young, in the beginning. When I’ve gone too far, I realize it the next day when I open the newspaper and say, ‘Oh ..’ It didn’t happen too often, but when it did I regretted it.”

The admittedly “left-of-center” cartoonist is alarmed by today’s political dialogue in America. “There’s a echo chamber with cable TV, talk radio, it all stokes intolerance. These people share a lot with the Islamic extremists. What sets us apart is freedom of speech although sometimes we have to hold our nose.

“It’s really depressing. It think we’re going backward as a culture. The gridlock in Congress is a good metaphor for what’s happening. There’s no give and take. It’s a shame.”

He described a personal experience involving an unpopular stance as an example.

“I’m a proponent of gun control and that’s an issue in the West. There was a guy who had a deep voice like the western actor, Sam Elliott, and he’d call at 4 a.m. on my office phone at The Post and say: ‘Hey, Mikey, you’ve done it again.’

“I suspect there are a lot of birdcages with my work in the bottom. But I think some stand the test of time.”

Keefe, who worked at The Post from 1975 to 2011, received the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He also won three John Fischetti Awards, a National Headliner Award and the Sigma Delta Chi  Distinguished Service Award.

The 68-year-old cartoonist still draws. His work is at coloradoindependent.com and InToon.com.

“I was in the Marines during Vietnam, didn’t go there, but I became politicized during that time. In grad school (Stanford) I was doing political cartoons for the school paper just for fun” and that eventually led to the job at The Post. He was a fan of three-time Pulitzer winner Jeff MacNelly, who also drew the “Shoe” comic strip, and Pulitzer winner Pat Oliphant, who preceded Keefe at The Post.

“There were close to 300 political cartoonists only in daily newspapers when I started,” he said. “Now, there are 60 max. The ranks are thin but there’s still a lot of talent out there. I was lucky. I got into newspapers when it had more prestige than it does now.”

In addition to “Shoe,” Keefe mentioned “Calvin and Hobbes” by Bill Watterson and “Pogo” by Walt Kelly.

“‘Pogo’  was good. ‘Li’l Abner’ was popular too. But (creator) Al Capp got very right wing politically. He’d be the house cartoonist for Fox News today.”