Eric Shansby (born 1985) commonly known as Shansby, is an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

and children's book illustrator.Weingarten, Gene
What's mightier, the pencil or the keyboard?
Washington Post Magazine. February 8, 2004.Gene Weingarten & Eric Shansby on Comedy and Collaboration
The Kojo Nnamdi Show. September 18, 2014. His cartoons appear in American news outlets, most prominently in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' alongside columns by humorist

Gene Weingarten Gene Norman Weingarten is an American journalist, and former syndicated humor columnist for ''The Washington Post.'' He is the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Weingarten is known for both his serious and humor ...

Early life and education

Shansby grew up in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

. His mother was a librarian. He was interested in art from a young age and would trace the images in the library books his mother brought home to him. He drew caricatures of his classmates and teachers in elementary school. Shansby published his first comic strip in his sophomore year of Montgomery Blair High School, where he was the art editor and a cartoonist for his high school newspaper. He created both editorial cartoons and a strip ''OxyMoron''. There, he met ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' writer

when Weingarten gave a guest lecture in Shansby's journalism class.Profile of a Teen Cartoonist
Literary Cavalcade (February 2005) vol 57, no. 7, p. 5. via EBSCO, accessed May 25, 2022.Eric Shansby
Yale Daily News. January 19, 2007. When Weingarten first saw Shansby's work, he noted it was "breathtaking stuff." For his work in high school, Shansby won The Freedom Forum's Free Spirit Scholarship and the Maryland Scholastic Press and Quill & Scroll Society/National Newspaper Association's editorial cartoon awards. At the 2002 Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Circle Awards, he placed first in art/illustration portfolio, comic cartoons, editorial cartoons, and sports cartoons. In addition, he came in second place for his cartoon portfolio and third place for editorial cartoons. He graduated from high school in 2003. Shansby studied philosophy at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, graduating in 2007. At Yale, he was a member of

St. Anthony Hall St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great. The fraternity is a non–religious, nonsectar ...

and was also a political cartoonist for the ''

Yale Daily News The ''Yale Daily News'' is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut, since January 28, 1878. Description Financially and editorially independent of Yale University since its founding, th ...

''.

Career

While in high school, Shansby drew editorial cartoons for the weekly '' Montgomery County Sentinel''. His political cartoons covered AIDS, environmental issues, gay marriage, human cloning, public education, and the Iraq War. Once in college, he continued submitting to the ''Sentinel''. His work was also published in ''Young D.C.'' and ''The Report Press Law Magazine''. In 2004,

asked him to illustrate ''Below the Beltway'', his weekly humor column in ''The'' ''Washington Post Magazine''. Shansby began contributing to ''Below the Beltway'' while he was a freshman in college. He also had a regular feature on the ''KidsPost'' website. Shansby illustrated the 2014 children's book ''Me & Dog'', a parable on

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

written by Weingarten. In September 2018, Shansby left ''Below the Beltway'' as part of the redesign of ''The'' ''Washington Post Magazine''. Wiengarten stopped writing the column in 2021.

Personal life

On the Kojo Nnamdi Show, Shansby identified himself as a “culturally Jewish, American atheist.”

Publications

Books

* ''Me & Dog''. Simon & Schuster, Simon & Schuster, 2014. Written by Gene Weingarten and illustrated by Eric Shansby''.'' ''''

As Contributing Artist

* ''Compleating Cul de Sac''. Thompson, Richard, et al. Team Cul de Sac and ComicsDC, 2015. * ''Failure by Design: The Story Behind America’s Broken Economy''. Bivens, Josh. Cornell University Press, 2011. * ''World Politics in a New Era, 4th Edition''. Spiegel, Steven L., et al. Oxford University Press, 2008. * ''Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year 2007''. Brooks, Charles (Ed.). Pelican Publishing, 2007. * ''Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year 2006''. Brooks, Charles (Ed.). Pelican Publishing, 2006. * ''Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year 2005''. Brooks, Charles (Ed.). Pelican Publishing, 2005. * ''Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year 2004''. Brooks, Charles (Ed.). Pelican Publishing, 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shansby, Eric 1985 births Living people People from Silver Spring, Maryland Yale University alumni St. Anthony Hall American illustrators American editorial cartoonists American political artists American children's book illustrators Jewish American atheists American atheists American newspaper editors American comics artists American comic strip cartoonists Jewish American comics artists Jewish American editorial cartoonists Jewish American illustrators