Mark Fiore

KQED News Cartoonist

MarkFiore.com | Follow on Twitter | Facebookemail Pulitzer Prize-winner, Mark Fiore, who the Wall Street Journal has called “the undisputed guru of the form,” creates animated political cartoons in San Francisco, where his work has been featured regularly on the San Francisco Chronicle’s web site, SFGate.com.  His work has appeared on Newsweek.com, Slate.com, CBSNews.com, MotherJones.com, DailyKos.com and NPR’s web site.  Fiore’s political animation has appeared on CNN, Frontline, Bill Moyers Journal, Salon.com and cable and broadcast outlets across the globe. Beginning his professional life by drawing traditional political cartoons for newspapers, Fiore’s work appeared in publications ranging from the Washington Post to the Los Angeles Times.  In the late 1990s, he began to experiment with animating political cartoons and, after a short stint at the San Jose Mercury News as their staff cartoonist, Fiore devoted all his energies to animation. Growing up in California, Fiore also spent a good portion of his life in the backwoods of Idaho.  It was this combination that shaped him politically.  Mark majored in political science at Colorado College, where, in a perfect send-off for a cartoonist, he received his diploma in 1991 as commencement speaker Dick Cheney smiled approvingly. Mark Fiore was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 2010, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 2004 and has twice received an Online Journalism Award for commentary from the Online News Association (2002, 2008).  Fiore has received two awards for his work in new media from the National Cartoonists Society (2001, 2002), and in 2006 received The James Madison Freedom of Information Award from The Society of Professional Journalists.

By Mark FioreBy Mark Fiore

Notable Selections From KQED's Youth Media Political Cartoon Challenge

Cartoon: a dirigible floats through the sky as a happy gold mining sourdough character jumps into the sky holding a pick ax and gold pan.

The Inventor and Artist Who Tried Starting the First Airline Service to SF ... in 1849

Cartoon: a BART system route map with colorful, tangled lines is titled, "route map for face masking." The lines are labeled, "BART, CA Dept. of Public Health, CDC, judicial system and right-wing activists."

Re-Requiring Face Masks

Cartoon: happy people celebrate around a "JFK Drive" sign in Golden Gate Park. The "drive" on the sign is crossed out and replaced with a list of "walk, cycle, skate, run, frolic, amble, anything but drive."

A Park for People, Not Cars

Cartoon: Elon Musk waving a cowboy hat as he rides a ramshackle rocket labeled "free speech" that is spewing "conspiracies, hate, incitement and crypto hype."

Buckle Up for Rocket Man

Cartoon: a couple hikes by a beautiful forest and pond. The man says, "what a great place to celebrate Earth Day! Out in nature, by a lovely pond..." The woman says, "um, that's a glacier."

Happy Earth Day!

Cartoon: a man on a bus or train throws a face mask away while saying "hooray! Masks are strongly recommended!" A masked woman and child look on with concern.

Fast Track to Unmasking

Cartoon: a flight attendant blows into a tube on an inflatable judge holding a gavel as shocked passengers look on. Over the intercom we read, "in the event of a mask mandate, flight attendants are instructed to deploy a trump-appointed judge from Florida."

Politicizing Public Health Decisions ... Again

Cartoon: a saber-toothed tiger faces a huge mammoth as two more mammoths walk in the background.

Bay Area Back Then: Mammoths and Tigers and Giant Bison, Oh My!