Gary Varvel: Meet Vaughn Shoemaker who inspired my Christmas cartoons

A new Humor Me toon plus an invitation to hear me speak this Sunday

ARCHIVE - I drew this illustration in 2021. It is one of my dual-image cartoons, some of which I have produced as a set of Christmas cards. Thirty years ago, I was inspired by Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist, Vaughn Shoemaker, to draw a cartoon about the true meaning of Christmas. You can read his story below.

SPEECH

YOU’RE INVITED

I will be the guest speaker at Samaria Christian Church on Sunday, December 15 at 10:00 am. The church is located at 4779 W. State Road 135, Trafalgar, Indiana 46181. Come and join us as we look at Christmas in the Old Testament.

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HUMOR ME

HUMOR ME: Fix my cartoon with a snarky remark. Email your entries to gary@garyvarvel.com. Winners announced in Friday’s newsletter for paid subscribers.

MEET VAUGHN SHOEMAKER (1902-1991)

In 1934, Christian, conservative, cartoonist for the Chicago Daily News drew the first Christmas cartoon to be printed in a newspaper. He was 32-year-old Vaughn Shoemaker.

His most famous character was John Q. Public, who represented the beleaguered American taxpayer. But what most people don’t know about The First Christmas cartoon is the rest of the story. You see, the cartoon that you see below almost didn’t make it into print.

In his book, God Guides My Pen, Shoemaker wrote, “I was floundering around for a real Christmas idea.” He thought of drawing a manger scene with the Bible verse, John 3:16 written in the sky. He entitled it, “The First Christmas.”

He tried to think of other ideas, but “God led me back to that Bethlehem drawing, saying, ‘This is it.’

When he took the cartoon to the editorial board meeting, the editors thought the drawing was all right, but they were concerned that the John 3:16 verse might offend their non-Christian readers. They wanted him to find some other line. But Shoemaker fought for John 3:16; it was that or nothing.

“I guess I was pretty stubborn,” Shoemaker continued, “but it meant a lot, that text. I was the only man in the room who wanted it, and my heart sank lower and lower as hope faded. Finally, one of the editors said, ‘We’d better take this to the publisher. Let him decide.’”

The publisher, Col. Frank Knox, (who eventually became the Secretary of the Navy) listened patiently to all the obvious reasons why the cartoon should not be used.