New Op-ed cartoonist aims her barbs at local issues

By Manny Grossman

Starting this week, a new feature will grace the Op-ed page of The Riverdale Press: a cartoon strip from Kingsbridge resident and syndicated cartoonist Anne Gibbons

The strip, called "Eve 'N Steven" has a flair of social and political commentary, but also deals with everyday life as well. As Ms. Gibbons says, "Political commentary is great, but sometimes you have to do the laundry."

Eve 'N Steven will touch on issues relevant to the Riverdale community, but she hopes that it will also transcend those issues to have a broader appeal.

Ms. Gibbons, whose work is distributed by King Features as part of its "Six Chix" team of women artists, likes to say that she came into cartooning "via a back door, while walking backwards and blindfolded." Although she always loved to draw, she didn't figure out how to make a living doing it until she was in her late 20s.

After teaching elementary school physical education for a few years, it "struck her like a bolt of lightning" that she no longer wished to teach. Instead, she wanted to be an artist. To that end, she enrolled in classes at Parsons School of Visual Arts and the Art Students League.

Since that "fateful decision," cartoons by Ms. Gibbons have adorned everything from greeting cards, magazines, books and Web sites to mugs, magnets, T-shirts and tote bags.

Ms. Gibbons' artwork has appeared in Reader's Digest, Ladies' Home Journal, Glamour and Redbook. It has also been reprinted in numerous books, including the Women's Glib anthologies, Crème de la Femme and This Could Be The Start Of Something Stupid. Major companies such as F. Schumacher, Lifetime Television, Hearst New Media, IBM and MasterCard have all used Ms. Gibbons' cartoons in their marketing spreads.

In 2000, the National Cartoonists Society honored Ms. Gibbons with the prestigious Reuben Award for Greeting Cards.

Ms. Gibbons moved to Kingsbridge from the Upper West Side in October 2006. She took to the area, she said, because "it seems like more of a community" than other areas. She reached out to The Riverdale Press to run her cartoons because the paper offers a "great mix" of serious and cultural issues that really appealed to her.

Her cartoon strip will run the first week of each month, starting in today's issue on page A13.