Gary Varvel is a conservative activistpolitical cartoonist. Varvel was the editorial cartoonist for Indianapolis Star from 1994 to 2019. Previously he was the chief artist for The Indianapolis News for 16 years. His works are syndicated with Creators Syndicate. Varvel is an avid sports fan, and often includes the Indianapolis sports scene in his cartoons. In 2015, Varvel was inducted into the .
Awards
Varvel has won the National Headliners Award in 2012, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 2011, National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award for Best Editorial Cartoonist in 2010, with a Conscience in 2011, Fifteen-time winner of the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists' Award for Best Editorial Cartoon and thirteen-time winner of the Best Editorial Cartoonist Award in the Hoosier State Press Association. In 2006, Varvel was given the H. Dean Evans Legacy Award for community service. In 2018, Varvel received the Advancing American Democracy Award from the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis, Indiana,
Movies
Varvel is also a board member of House of Grace Films and co-writer and producer of the films, THE BOARD and THE WAR WITHIN, winner of 7 film festival awards. . Varvel also authored and published a children's book, The Good Shepherd. Besides being a cartoonist, Varvel was a part-time art teacher for 14 years at Bethesda Christian Schools and taught an adult Sunday school class for 22 years. Varvel resides in Brownsburg, Indiana with his wife. They have 3 adult children and 5 grandchildren.
Controversies
In the week before Thanksgiving in 2014, the Indianapolis Star published a single panel cartoon by Varvel that was widely criticized as being racist. In the cartoon, a Caucasian 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 then a day later the executive editor Jeff Taylor deleted the cartoon entirely and issued an apology. 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." Writing for New York Magazine, Caroline Bankoff wrote, "Thanksgiving, which celebrates the generosity this country's original inhabitants showed to the undocumented immigrants who landed on their shores in 1620." Another cartoon in 2018 spurred after many viewed Varvel's message as demeaning to women and sexual assault victims.
