DARRIN BELL

Darrin is an award-winning editorial cartoonist and comic strip creator known for the syndicated comic strips Candorville and Rudy Park. He is the first African-American to have two comic strips syndicated nationally.

Darrin Bell, recipient of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, the 2016 Berryman Award for Editorial Cartooning, the 2015 RFK Award for Editorial Cartooning, and UC Berkeley’s 2015 Daily Californian Alumni of the Year Award, began his career in 1995 at the age of twenty. While serving as the Daily Californian’s staff cartoonist, he began freelancing for the Opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Oakland Tribune. In 1997, he cocreated the comic strip Rudy Park and self-syndicated it to technology magazines. United Media launched it into newspapers in 2001. In 2003, Darrin launched his other comic strip, Candorville, in newspapers via the Washington Post Writers Group (WPWG), which also began syndicating his editorial cartoons in 2013. While WPWG still syndicates Candorville and Rudy Park, Darrin moved his editorial cartoons to King Features Syndicate in late 2018. He’s also a contributing cartoonist for the New Yorker. Darrin lives with his wife and four children in California.

Darrin is the author of the acclaimed book The Talk published in 2023.

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Books

The Talk

Through evocative illustrations and sharp humor, Bell examines how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood.


Named The Year's Best Graphic Novel by Publishers Weekly

Named one of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Best Books of 2023

Named a Best Book of 2023 by NPR

Named one of Kirkus' Best 2023 Books

Named one of the Washington Post's 10 best graphic novels of 2023

One of TIME Magazine's Must-Read Books of the Year

Shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction 2024

New York Public Library's Best New Comics of 2023 Top Ten Pick

Chicago Public Library's Best Books of 2023 Top Ten Pick

Named one of School Library Journal's Best Graphic Novels of 2023

Substack

Political Cartoons & Comic Strips

Progressive anti-fascist, anti-racist political cartoons and comic strips, by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell. SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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