Tom Toles

Who is Tom Toles?

Thomas Gregory Toles is an American political cartoonist. He is the winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. His cartoons typically present progressive viewpoints. Similar to Oliphant's use of his character Punk, Toles also tends to include a small doodle, usually a small caricature of himself at his desk, in the margin of his strip.

Toles wrote for The Buffalo Courier-Express, The Buffalo News and The Washington Post. He left The Buffalo News in 2002, accepting an offer from The Washington Post to replace Herblock, their late, legendary cartoonist, and is under contract by Universal Press Syndicate. Part of his acceptance of his new job required him to give up his United Feature-distributed daily and Sunday cartoon panel Randolph Itch 2 AM, a cartoon based on Toles' thoughts while battling insomnia. Toles was replaced at the Buffalo News by Adam Zyglis. In addition to Randolph Itch 2 AM, Toles also created a daily and Sunday comic strip about small children called Curious Avenue. It ran 1992-1994 through his future editorial cartooning syndicate, Universal Press Syndicate. A collection of the strip was published in 1983 through the publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing.