2024 Hall of Fame Inductee:
Darrin Bell, Class of 1997
Award-winning editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell is not afraid to take on hard topics with intelligence and humor. He cites the influence of the work of Paul Conrad, whose images about the Iran hostage crisis made a deep impression on him as a five year old. Leafing through the pages of the Los Angeles Times, with his parents explaining what those political cartoons meant, Bell knew that he wanted to one day become a cartoonist. As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley in 1993, he became the staff cartoonist for the Daily Californian. There he created the comic strip Lemont Brown, while also pursuing a successful freelance editorial cartooning career with sales to the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Oakland Tribune. His strip Candorville, featuring young Black and Latino characters, grew out of Lemont Brown, and was launched in September 2003 by The Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, 2015 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the 2016 Clifford K. & James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons, and the 2015 Daily Californian Alumni of the Year. Bell continues to receive acclaim for his graphic memoir The Talk, which made several Best Graphics Novels of 2023 lists, including Publishers Weekly, Washington Post, School Library Journal, and the Guardian.