(Photo credit: Kate Russell)
Marty Two Bulls Sr. is an Oglala Lakota originally from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He has worked as a graphic designer in television, commercial printing, daily newspapers and new media. His work has also appeared in the newspapers like Indian Country Today (Martin, SD), Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Times (New Town, ND), Cherokee One Feather (Cherokee, NC), and News from Indian Country (Hayward, WI).
Two Bulls started his editorial cartooning in his high school newspaper where he learned the fundamentals of cartooning, layout and design. This interest would lead him to pursue studies at the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver Colorado and later to earn a BFA at The Institute of American Indian Arts. His ‘editoons’ started out as a hobby but within a few years the hobby turned into a career. He has produced over six hundred editorial cartoons and continues to produce work week after week.
Two Bulls began as a journalist in weekly newspapers and then moved on to dailies. He accepted a position at the Rapid City Journal as a graphics editor and he served on the editorial board for seven years before moving on to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader where he continued as graphics editor for six more years. Two Bulls eventually left newspapers to pursue a fine art career and freelance as a cartoonist.
Marty Two Bulls, Sr.’s work focuses on issues of political interest to Native peoples, a vital niche market. Native Americans have been historically persecuted and marginalized by the dominant culture, which has reduced them to a minority in their own lands. Two Bulls creates his cartoons for his people; if non-Natives are touched by his work, all the better. It is important to him that the message of the editorial is made known to all peoples.
Two Bulls, Sr. currently works as a senior freelance artist, college art professor and graphic designer. Marty works and studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He enjoys teaching, painting, sculpting and designing jewelry. His website is m2bulls.com.
Herb Block is among the world’s best known and most admired political cartoonists. Born on October 13, 1909, the native Chicagoan spent his 72-year career fighting against abuses of the powerful.