Bexley High grad wins Charles M. Schulz Award

By INA HORWITZ-WHITMORE
This Week Staff Writer

Should Bexley High School 1998 graduate Nate Beeler become a professional editorial cartoonist after college, he believes that he will be part of a group that numbers less than 300 in the country.

“Some have staff positions and are syndicated,” Beeler said “Others rely on syndication only. It’s hard to be successful. You have to be on top of your game."

Beeler, 21, seems likely on his way to making that elite list. The recipient of the Charles M. Schulz Award given by the Scripps Howard Foundation for best college cartoonist, he said the honor is the equivalent of the “Pulitzer Prize” for college students. All other awards from the national contest are given to only professional journalists.

Beeler will publicly receive the award, which includes a $2,500 cash prize and a marble statue, at a black tie banquet at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

As a senior at American University in Washington majoring in print journalism, Beeler won’t have to travel far to accept the honor. His editorial cartoons, however, can be seen in college newspapers around the country.

Beeler is syndicated with KRT Campus (Knight Ridder/Tribune) that sends cartoons to college campuses.

When his parents, Pam and Jack Beeler, took his brother Adam. a BHS senior to visit colleges, they saw one of their son’s cartoons in a college newspaper in upstate New York. Beeler thinks of himself as an editorial cartoonist.

“Calling yourself a political cartoonist will pigeonhole you,” he said. “Being an editorial cartoonist doesn’t limit you.”

Beeler began his path in life by doing editorial cartoons for the BHS newspaper, The Torch. On his first day at the university, he went to the newspaper office on campus. When he entered, the atmosphere was “dead quiet.” He told the only student in the office that be was a college freshman and he drew cartoons.

The student happened to be the editor-in-chief. She invited him to an open house at the newspaper -and he became the first student in the freshman class to be published in the university’s paper, The Eagle. The paper is student-run with no academic advisor.

“As long as I’ve been here, I have been the paper’s only cartoonist,” Beeler said. “You have to be political savvy and write on a regular basis. You have to dedicate your time. I’m willing to do it."

He’s willing to practice to become better as well.

Beeler thinks that by studying cartooning and being creative, a person will come up with ideas.

“Editorial cartooning is not something visible to people in society,” he said. “Not many think
of it as a viable career path or think about it at all.”

He said the market for his trade is as competitive as acting. A lot of people are out there who send cartoons and ideas to newspapers.

For Beeler, there is always an idea out there.

“It’s like fishing,” he said. “You wait for the bite and go after it. Sometimes it takes long to get a bite. I want to come up with as many ideas as I can. Then I whittle them down and come up with the best idea. What’s most important to me is to engage readers, engage their minds and make an impact.”

Beeler sometimes struggles with whether to be more humorous or more serious in his works. For a month after Sept. 11, Beeler did serious cartoons to be mindful of the public.

He said a debate in the world of cartooning is whether a gag cartoon is valid - do you just go for the joke?

It can be about what will sell, too, Beeler said.

He feels that if cartoonists decide to go for what is funny, they should do comic strips.

“On the editorial page, the cartoon should be about what involves you intellectually,” he said. “It’s easier to just come up with the apparent gag.”

Not many subjects are off-limits, according to Beeler - but trained as a journalist, he believes editorial cartoonists should adhere to the same ethics as reporters and as editors should.

"Your ethics should stay in bedrock form," he said. "When applied to different situations, different results can occur. With cartooning, there are lots of gray areas, and it is easy to offend people. You shouldn't worry if a person is in the public eye, whether it is the President, Attorney General or the Senate majority leader. You have to be willing to go out on a limb on controversial issues."

Beeler has been winning national awards for cartooning since high school.
He likes bringing up some of his opinions in cartoons, but does not want to be put in a box when it comes to his views. "I'm very middle-of-the road," he said.

"In terms of my slant," he said, "I'm an equal opportunity satirist. I likened myself to the school of 'trust thyself.' I can be conservative on some issues, liberal on others."

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