Hubenthal, Karl, 1917-

Editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner (1955- 1981?); sports cartoonist for the Los Angeles Examiner (1949-55).

Karl Hubenthal was an editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner (1955-1982. Previously, he was a sports cartoonist for the Los Angeles Examiner (1949-1955).

Karl Hubenthal (1917-1998) was an American sports and editorial cartoonist.

Born in Beemer, Nebraska on May 1, 1917, Hubenthal grew up in Los Angeles, California and graduated from Hollywood High School. Hubenthal got his start in 1935 at the Los Angeles Herald-Express, where his first job was with the Art Department. In 1939 he began to do sports cartoons for that newspaper. Hubenthal left to serve with the Marine Corps during World War II and following the war worked as a freelance advertising artist.

But in 1949 he was drawn back into cartooning at another Hearst paper, the Examiner and in 1956 he became the paper's full-time editorial cartoonist. When the Herald Express was combined with the Examiner in 1962, Hubenthal's cartoons were one of the Examiner's features carried over to the newly combined publication. Hubenthal's cartoons were also syndicated to other Hearst newspapers and he continued to contribute sports cartoons to the paper on Fridays and drew other sports-themed commercial art pieces .

Hubenthal's work has been widely recognized. In 1940, he was named Best Sports Cartoonist at the New York World's Fair and the National Cartoonists Society gave him four awards for his sports cartoons. Through his sports cartoons, he supported the effort to bring the Dodgers baseball team to Los Angeles and Hubenthal routinely cariciatured local teams including the University of Southern California. The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists presented Hubenthal with the National Headliner's Award in 1958, 1960 and 1961. NCS also named him best editorial cartoonist in 1961, 1967 and 1970. Twenty-five Freedoms Foundation Medals were presented to him and he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize several times. He served as president of the AAEC and the Society of Illustrators.

Karl Hubenthal retired in 1982 and died of cancer in Los Angeles on August 13, 1998.

"The nice part of what I do is that I get instant responses. I either get panned, or praised, but at least I know what I'm saying is having some effect. When you don't get mail, that's when you should worry." ( Herald-Examiner , 1982)