Back in September 2021, longtime colleague Robert Ariail started a new venture — a cartoon strip in the Charleston City Paper. It’s a weekly project he wanted to do for years.
All of us should be thankful for that. He’s made us laugh and cry. And sometimes, a cartoon he created was so amazing that we spit out our coffee or (God forbid) beer. (See cartoons below)
While Ariail lives in Camden, he considers the Lowcountry to be the home of his soul.
“I spent my sunbaked childhood searching the beaches for shark’s teeth and shells and plying the waters of the creek for flounder and blue crab behind my grandfather’s house,” Ariail told us back then. “So creating a comic strip with the beauty of South Carolina’s Lowcountry as a backdrop came naturally.”
In the years since, we’ve marveled at the animals he’s brought to life on the page — the turtle, raccoon, alligator, gulls and a menagerie of other critters. We’ve delighted in how Ariail’s few words and crisp drawings always seem to perfectly capture an issue of state or national importance in ways that a 600-word column just cannot.
Ariail served as editorial cartoonist for The State newspaper from 1984 until 2009, twice being named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1995 and 2000. His weekly laughs in City Paper cartoons have also won state and national accolades — just like those of our other funnyman-in-print, Steve Stegelin.
We’re proud to be the only weekly newspaper in the nation to offer two original cartoonists every week. And this week, we celebrate the wit and wisdom of Robert Ariail. Enjoy some of his best. —Andy Brack, editor
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