Cartoons — American Style

- Mario Miranda

He told me that even before he came to America his lifelong dream had always been to create something for children. So Charlie Brown, Snoopy and all those other lovable characters came into being. As far as his ideas and drawings are concerned, he gets help from nobody - it’s all his own work. But he did seem surprised at the enormous success of Peanuts.

Whilst we were there, they were shooting a Christmas TV spectacular featuring Snoopy, which he asked us to watch. And the only thing he remembered as far as India was concerned was that my friend Sudhir Dar, the Indian cartoonist, had paid him a visit a couple of years ago. He plans to take up Sudhir’s invitation (and mine also) and visit India some day.

I thought Denver, Colorado, was one of the friendliest cities in America. That’s where I met Pat Oliphant (my favourite political cartoonist) of The Denver Post. Pipe smoking Oliphant, with a small goatee (like mine), is Australian by birth. He came to America a couple of years ago and is considered today one of America’s top cartoonists. We got along famously over a couple of cold beers in a local bar.

Very political-minded, very anti-Nixon (most American cartoonists are viciously anti-Nixon) I noticed, Oliphant was rather furious about the number of cartoonists who were imitating his style. Oliphant owns a little red four-seater plane and whenever he wants to get away from it all, he just jumps into it and flies off to nearby Aspen, a holiday resort, for a spot of skiing.