I’m very sad to report that my friend Rex Babin, the brilliant cartoonist for the Sacramento Bee and a longtime contributor to Cagle.com, passed away this morning after a two year long fight with stomach cancer. A little over a year ago, Rex took a medical leave from his position as the paper’s staff cartoonist, and has been drawing off and on since.
Rex was a friend, and a mainstay in the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, serving as president in 2010. He was the winner of the National Press Foundation’s 2001 Berryman Award and was a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. His cartoons were nationally syndicated by King Features.
My thoughts go out to his family, especially his wife Kathleen and their son Sebastian. What a sad day and a terrible loss for the profession.
Here is his last cartoon, which appeared in the Bee on March 4:
