Pete Wagner
Encyclopedia
Pete Wagner is an American political cartoonist, activist, author, scholar and caricature artist whose work has been published in over 300 newspapers and other periodicals, and whose cartoons and activist theatrics have been the subject of controversy and frequent media attention.
and Minneapolis, Minnesota
. Wagner is probably best known as a political cartoonist. He was staff editorial cartoonist for his high school newspaper, the Bay View Oracle, in 1971-72, and a number of alternative media
, college, neighborhood and special interest newspapers and magazines starting in 1972, including the UWM Post
(1972–74 and 1976), the Marquette Tribune
(1973–75) Minnesota Daily
(1974–76 and 1997–2002), MPIRG Statewatch (1979–1987), Minnesota Tenants Union newspaper (1979–82), Elliot Park, Minneapolis Surveyor (1981–84), Gay-Lesbian Community Voice (1979–93), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
(1985–87), City Pages
(1982–92), Madison Press Connection
(1978) and others. Wagner's mentors were Bill Sanders of the Milwaukee Journal, Herb Block of the Washington Post, and Ross Lewis, retired Milwaukee Journal cartoonist.
of the art form, rather than "selling out
" by watering down his satire or drawing style, Wagner, inspired by the examples of Thomas Paine
, Henry David Thoreau
and I.F. Stone, forsook a career which by the time he was 20 years old held significant promise of wealth and fame to instead work for smaller but more journalistically fiesty or risque alternative and college papers and magazines and to engage in radical political and cultural activism. Characterized by Isthmus
as a "punk
cartoonist" in a cover story about Wagner published in March 1978, Wagner's political cartoons were syndicated by the College Press Service
from 1973–76, and reprinted in over 300 periodicals, including Time
magazine, the Washington Post, The Progressive
, In These Times
, High Times and others. In 1977, Wagner was recruited by Larry Flynt
to draw political cartoons on a regular basis for Hustler
magazine, under the banner "Drawing Fire, by Pete Wagner." Wagner quit less than a year later when Flynt announced that Hustler would be transformed from a pornographic magazine into a Christian publication, explaining that he did not want to "ruin my reputation by being associated with a religious magazine." Wagner's cartoons won a national Society of Professional Journalists
award in 1976 for a cartoon drawn while at the Minnesota Daily, six more SPJ awards between 1985 and 1991 for cartoons drawn while at City Pages, an honorable mention in the John Fischetti
competition and several Minnesota Newspaper Association awards, also while at City Pages. One of his cartoons was shown in an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York.
, specifically appearances by Anita Bryant
in 1978, President :Ronald Reagan in 1981, and Rev. Jerry Falwell
in 1982, among others. Mentored directly by Paul Krassner
and Abbie Hoffman
, founders of the Yippies or Youth International Movement, Wagner used creative nonviolent and comical costumes, narrative, meme
s and surprise tactics to make political statements which tended to attract attention from mass media. For example, he mocked the impotency of student governments at universities by running for student vice president in 1973 at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and in 1976 he ran for student president of the University of Minnesota
on the "Tupperware Party" ticket, in both cases promising to leave town if elected, and in both cases following through with a move out of town. The comedic application of the "Tupperware Party" name to a student political party was the brainchild of UWM students James Rubin and Donnie Goetz. Wagner won the primary at the University of Minnesota in 1976 defeating all other candidates, and his campaign garnered the attention of national news media including United Press International
and NBC
News. In 1982, after tiring of trying to persuade leftist steering committees he found stodgy, humorless and politically correct
to incorporate more theater and humor into protests they were organizing in Minneapolis, Wagner conceived, designed and organized a demonstration at which the public was encouraged to demonstrate "for or against anything you want." The "All-Purpose (Generic) Demonstration" capitalized on the new cultural and marketing phenomenon of generic brand
packaging and attracted more than 5,000 participants, was copied by students at a college in Denver, and received intense media coverage including a front-page article and photo on the St. Paul Pioneer Press
and Dispatch and a story on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered
." The Generic Demonstration was the final action in which the "street theater gang" organized by Wagner in 1981, the 1985 Brain Trust, was involved. The Brain Trust was a collective of mostly University of Minnesota students who formed a cult-like group with Wagner that created and performed numerous myth-making actions and publications between May 1981 and June 1982. The Brain Trust resembled a highly politicized version of Andy Warhol
's "The Factory
" in its relationship to Wagner and collaborated with The Church of the Subgenius
, publishing some of its earliest works. A history of the group is detailed in Wagner's second book, "Buy This Too".
Wagner worked with more traditional methods of activism earlier in his career, for example when he organized ECO, the Environmental Cleanup Organization, as a junior at Bay View High School in 1969. ECO initiated recycling programs, conducted roadside litter cleanups and successfully fought the test-marketing of a non-biodegradable container by the Morton Salt company through the Milwaukee City Council between 1969-1972. Wagner continued working as an environmental activist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he worked with Mike Walker to oppose energy waste. Wagner was a speaker for Zero Population Growth
, Inc. from 1973 through 1975 in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. He served as co-chair of the Benjamin Spock
for President campaign in 1972, when the famous pediatrician ran for U.S. president on a socialist platform which called for socialized medicine
and a ceiling on personal annual income of $50,000. In 1974, Wagner was elected chairman of the University of Minnesota Irish Northern Aid chapter, and became a regular contributor of articles and cartoons opposing British imperialism for the Republican News
in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In more recent years, Wagner has worked with Minneapolis environmental activist Leslie Davis
, joining Davis as his running mate in Davis' bid for governor of Minnesota in 2002.
, probably the first free tabloid humor publication in the U.S., "Minne HA! HA! - The Twin Cities' Sorely Needed Humor Magazine" (published sporadically in volumes of one to fifteen issues between 1978 and 1993). Minne HA! HA!'s satire was typified by issues like "The Lighter Side of Total Global Nuclear Devastation." Wagner's book designs were innovative for their time, influenced by the designs of Marshal McLuhan's books done by Quentin Fiore
, and likened to MAD Magazine by WCCO-TV
's Marcia Fleur in an interview with Wagner on "Newsday" in November 1987. Wagner also performed stand-up political comedy and satire at Dudley Riggs Brave New Workshop
Theater in the 1970s and at Scott Hansen's Comedy Gallery on a regular basis in 1990. In addition to comedy and humor writing, Wagner has written numerous opinion pieces and editorials for various newspapers, including the Milwaukee Journal.
in 1978-79 and in new media throughout the 1990s. He produced Public-access television
cable TV shows at the Minneapolis Television Network in the early to mid-1990s with Schmidt, worked on ways to use digital media to draw political cartoons using Amiga computers from the late 1980s to late 1990s, and drew live political cartoons on KMSP-TV
, Channel 9, the FOX affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul, on its morning news program on a weekly basis in 2004. Some of his new media cartooning efforts are posted on Wagner's http://www.wagtoons.com website of political cartoons, most of which were drawn between 1997-2002 for the Minnesota Daily.
. Bernard Casserly, editor of the Catholic Bulletin based in St. Paul, MN, wrote a scathing editorial in 1975 against Wagner in response to a cartoon about the Kenneth Edelin trial in Boston, condemning Wagner as "vicious," "poisonous," "malicious" and "sophomoric." Yet Casserly wrote the glowing foreword 12 years later to Wagner's second book, "Buy This Too," after the two became friends. Minneapolis Daily American editor Francis R. McGovern, an extreme right-wing conservative who would have fit into today's Tea Party movement
, at first lambasted Wagner but later praised his use of humor to engage students to participate in political activism, and also stated that he was "honored" to call Wagner a "great friend" and "a damn good clown." Rev. Joseph Head, an outspoken conservative activist who wrote a four-page, single-spaced, typewritten letter calling Wagner "A DANGEROUS ENEMY OF OUR COUNTRY!" in 1975, was a major participant in Wagner's "Generic Demonstration" at the University of Minnesota in 1982, and local news coverage by KSTP-TV
broadcast the image of the 80+ year-old Head, in his three-cornered American Revolutionary hat and in front of his giant replica of the Liberty Bell, grinning happily with his arm around his former "foe," Wagner. Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich
, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee J. Martin Klotsche
and one mayor of Madison, Wisconsin were among those fans of Wagner who requested and in some cases paid for original cartoons that had criticized them,. United States Senator Paul Wellstone
, who was criticized by Wagner for his positions on regulating nutritional supplements, hosted exhibits of Wagner's cartoons in his offices.
, and as a caricature artist performing at private events as an entertainer and drawing commissioned pieces from photographs. Wagner's frequently draws caricatures with his wife, Dian, as a team.
Early life
Originally from a working class neighborhood Bay View, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who also lived and worked in Madison, WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
and Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. Wagner is probably best known as a political cartoonist. He was staff editorial cartoonist for his high school newspaper, the Bay View Oracle, in 1971-72, and a number of alternative media
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
, college, neighborhood and special interest newspapers and magazines starting in 1972, including the UWM Post
UWM Post
The UWM Post is a weekly newspaper independently run by the students of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. It has been in publication since 1915 and became independently run in 1956...
(1972–74 and 1976), the Marquette Tribune
Marquette Tribune
The Marquette Tribune is the official student newspaper of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.-External links:*...
(1973–75) Minnesota Daily
Minnesota Daily
The Minnesota Daily is the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, published Monday-Thursday while school is in session, and published weekly on Wednesdays during summer sessions. Published since 1900, the paper is one of the largest student-run and student-written newspapers...
(1974–76 and 1997–2002), MPIRG Statewatch (1979–1987), Minnesota Tenants Union newspaper (1979–82), Elliot Park, Minneapolis Surveyor (1981–84), Gay-Lesbian Community Voice (1979–93), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical online magazine that covers global security and public policy issues, especially related to the dangers posed by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction...
(1985–87), City Pages
City Pages
City Pages is an alternative weekly newspaper serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It features news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews, and music criticism. It is printed in a tabloid format, and is available free every Wednesday...
(1982–92), Madison Press Connection
Madison Press Connection
Madison Press Connection was a newspaper formed in Madison, Wisconsin in October 1977 by striking union employees from the two dominant daily newspapers, the Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times. The Press Connection began as a weekly but became a daily early in 1978 in an effort to...
(1978) and others. Wagner's mentors were Bill Sanders of the Milwaukee Journal, Herb Block of the Washington Post, and Ross Lewis, retired Milwaukee Journal cartoonist.
Cartooning career
Wagner was influenced by Sanders to work in an acerbic "sledgehammer" style of political cartooning, which was considered "too in-your-face" by most commercial, corporate daily newspapers (to quote an editor at one suburban Chicago paper). Determined to remain true to what Wagner considered the highest and best practiceBest practice
A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark...
of the art form, rather than "selling out
Selling out
"Selling out" is the compromising of integrity, morality, or principles in exchange for money or "success" . It is commonly associated with attempts to tailor material to a mainstream audience...
" by watering down his satire or drawing style, Wagner, inspired by the examples of Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
, Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
and I.F. Stone, forsook a career which by the time he was 20 years old held significant promise of wealth and fame to instead work for smaller but more journalistically fiesty or risque alternative and college papers and magazines and to engage in radical political and cultural activism. Characterized by Isthmus
Isthmus (newspaper)
Isthmus is an alternative weekly newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1976, and has built a reputation for authoritative writing on news, arts and features. The paper prints more than 60,000 copies each Thursday, reaching an estimated 40% of all adults in Dane County, which includes...
as a "punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
cartoonist" in a cover story about Wagner published in March 1978, Wagner's political cartoons were syndicated by the College Press Service
College Press Service
College Press Service is a commercial news agency supplying stories to student newspapers.It began as the news agency of the United States Student Press Association . When USSPA...
from 1973–76, and reprinted in over 300 periodicals, including Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, the Washington Post, The Progressive
The Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
, In These Times
In These Times
In These Times is a politically progressive monthly magazine of news and opinion published by the Institute for Public Affairs in Chicago...
, High Times and others. In 1977, Wagner was recruited by Larry Flynt
Larry Flynt
Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications . In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list....
to draw political cartoons on a regular basis for Hustler
Hustler
Hustler is a monthly pornographic magazine aimed at men and published in the United States. It was first published in 1974 by Larry Flynt. It was a step forward from the Hustler Newsletter which was cheap advertising for his strip club businesses at the time. The magazine grew from a shaky start to...
magazine, under the banner "Drawing Fire, by Pete Wagner." Wagner quit less than a year later when Flynt announced that Hustler would be transformed from a pornographic magazine into a Christian publication, explaining that he did not want to "ruin my reputation by being associated with a religious magazine." Wagner's cartoons won a national Society of Professional Journalists
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
award in 1976 for a cartoon drawn while at the Minnesota Daily, six more SPJ awards between 1985 and 1991 for cartoons drawn while at City Pages, an honorable mention in the John Fischetti
John Fischetti
John R. Fischetti was an editorial cartoonist for the New York Herald-Tribune and the Chicago Daily News. He received a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1969 and numerous awards from the National Cartoonists Society.- Biography :Born in Brooklyn, New York, where his Italian father was a...
competition and several Minnesota Newspaper Association awards, also while at City Pages. One of his cartoons was shown in an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York.
Activist career
Wagner frequently utilized guerrilla theater as a way of responding to controversies and criticisms of his cartoons, as well as on its own apart from cartooning, in the capacity of a political activist and organizer protesting events staged in Minneapolis by the New RightNew Right
New Right is used in several countries as a descriptive term for various policies or groups that are right-wing. It has also been used to describe the emergence of Eastern European parties after the collapse of communism.-Australia:...
, specifically appearances by Anita Bryant
Anita Bryant
Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...
in 1978, President :Ronald Reagan in 1981, and Rev. Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
in 1982, among others. Mentored directly by Paul Krassner
Paul Krassner
Paul Krassner is an author, journalist, stand-up comedian, and the founder, editor and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist, first published in 1958...
and Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
, founders of the Yippies or Youth International Movement, Wagner used creative nonviolent and comical costumes, narrative, meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
s and surprise tactics to make political statements which tended to attract attention from mass media. For example, he mocked the impotency of student governments at universities by running for student vice president in 1973 at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and in 1976 he ran for student president of the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
on the "Tupperware Party" ticket, in both cases promising to leave town if elected, and in both cases following through with a move out of town. The comedic application of the "Tupperware Party" name to a student political party was the brainchild of UWM students James Rubin and Donnie Goetz. Wagner won the primary at the University of Minnesota in 1976 defeating all other candidates, and his campaign garnered the attention of national news media including United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
News. In 1982, after tiring of trying to persuade leftist steering committees he found stodgy, humorless and politically correct
Politically Correct
Politically Correct may refer to:*Political correctness, language, ideas, policies, or behaviour seeking to minimize offence to groups of people-See also:*Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, book by James Finn Garner, published in 1994...
to incorporate more theater and humor into protests they were organizing in Minneapolis, Wagner conceived, designed and organized a demonstration at which the public was encouraged to demonstrate "for or against anything you want." The "All-Purpose (Generic) Demonstration" capitalized on the new cultural and marketing phenomenon of generic brand
Generic brand
Generic brands of consumer products are distinguished by the absence of a brand name. It is often inaccurate to describe these products as "lacking a brand name", as they usually are branded, albeit with either the brand of the store in which they are sold or a lesser-known brand name which may...
packaging and attracted more than 5,000 participants, was copied by students at a college in Denver, and received intense media coverage including a front-page article and photo on the St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a newspaper based in St. Paul, Minnesota, primarily serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the eastern metro region, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, along with western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota and Anoka County,...
and Dispatch and a story on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
." The Generic Demonstration was the final action in which the "street theater gang" organized by Wagner in 1981, the 1985 Brain Trust, was involved. The Brain Trust was a collective of mostly University of Minnesota students who formed a cult-like group with Wagner that created and performed numerous myth-making actions and publications between May 1981 and June 1982. The Brain Trust resembled a highly politicized version of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's "The Factory
The Factory
The Factory was Andy Warhol's original New York City studio from 1962 to 1968, although his later studios were known as The Factory as well. The Factory was located on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street, in Midtown Manhattan. The rent was "only about one hundred dollars a year"...
" in its relationship to Wagner and collaborated with The Church of the Subgenius
Church of the SubGenius
The Church of the SubGenius is a "parody religion" organization that satirizes religion, conspiracy theories, unidentified flying objects, and popular culture. Originally based in Dallas, Texas, the Church of the SubGenius gained prominence in the 1980s and 1990s and maintains an active presence on...
, publishing some of its earliest works. A history of the group is detailed in Wagner's second book, "Buy This Too".
Wagner worked with more traditional methods of activism earlier in his career, for example when he organized ECO, the Environmental Cleanup Organization, as a junior at Bay View High School in 1969. ECO initiated recycling programs, conducted roadside litter cleanups and successfully fought the test-marketing of a non-biodegradable container by the Morton Salt company through the Milwaukee City Council between 1969-1972. Wagner continued working as an environmental activist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he worked with Mike Walker to oppose energy waste. Wagner was a speaker for Zero Population Growth
Zero population growth
Zero population growth, sometimes abbreviated ZPG , is a condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines, considered as a social aim....
, Inc. from 1973 through 1975 in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. He served as co-chair of the Benjamin Spock
Benjamin Spock
Benjamin McLane Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its message to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do."Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand...
for President campaign in 1972, when the famous pediatrician ran for U.S. president on a socialist platform which called for socialized medicine
Socialized medicine
Socialized medicine is a term used to describe a system for providing medical and hospital care for all at a nominal cost by means of government regulation of health services and subsidies derived from taxation. It is used primarily and usually pejoratively in United States political debates...
and a ceiling on personal annual income of $50,000. In 1974, Wagner was elected chairman of the University of Minnesota Irish Northern Aid chapter, and became a regular contributor of articles and cartoons opposing British imperialism for the Republican News
Republican News
Republican News was a longstanding newspaper/magazine published by Sinn Féin. Following the split in physical force Irish republicanism in the late 1960s between the Officials and the Provisionals Republican News was a longstanding newspaper/magazine published by Sinn Féin. Following the split in...
in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In more recent years, Wagner has worked with Minneapolis environmental activist Leslie Davis
Leslie Davis
Leslie A. Davis was an American diplomat and wartime US consul to Harput, Ottoman Empire from 1914 to 1917, who witnessed the Armenian Genocide.-Biography:...
, joining Davis as his running mate in Davis' bid for governor of Minnesota in 2002.
Writing, speaking, standup performances and publishing
Wagner's political activism also has taken the form of creating and performing multimedia political comedy shows ("Pete Wagner! Pete Wagner! The Un-American Boy!" toured 33 colleges in the late 1970s and early 1980s), and authoring and publishing books, including "Buy This Book" (1980) and "Buy This Too" (1987) and writing for, editing and publishing a mass-circulation precursor to The OnionThe Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
, probably the first free tabloid humor publication in the U.S., "Minne HA! HA! - The Twin Cities' Sorely Needed Humor Magazine" (published sporadically in volumes of one to fifteen issues between 1978 and 1993). Minne HA! HA!'s satire was typified by issues like "The Lighter Side of Total Global Nuclear Devastation." Wagner's book designs were innovative for their time, influenced by the designs of Marshal McLuhan's books done by Quentin Fiore
Quentin Fiore
Quentin Fiore is a graphic designer, who has worked mostly in books.Having taken art lessons from renowned artists George Grosz and Hans Hofmann, Fiore later studied at the "New Bauhaus" in Chicago....
, and likened to MAD Magazine by WCCO-TV
WCCO-TV
WCCO-TV, is the CBS owned and operated television station that serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. Its transmitter is at the Telefarm complex in Shoreview, Minnesota.- History :...
's Marcia Fleur in an interview with Wagner on "Newsday" in November 1987. Wagner also performed stand-up political comedy and satire at Dudley Riggs Brave New Workshop
Brave New Workshop
The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre , located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy and improvisation performances for 50 years – longer than any other theatre in the nation...
Theater in the 1970s and at Scott Hansen's Comedy Gallery on a regular basis in 1990. In addition to comedy and humor writing, Wagner has written numerous opinion pieces and editorials for various newspapers, including the Milwaukee Journal.
Television and digital cartooning
Wagner made efforts to adapt political cartooning to television beginning as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Mass Communication and Journalism in 1977, as a regular on Laird Brooks Schmidt's late-night television show on KSTP-TVKSTP-TV
KSTP-TV, channel 5, is the ABC affiliate for the Twin Cities. Its transmitter is located at the Shoreview Telefarm. It is the flagship station of Hubbard Broadcasting, which also owns several other broadcasting properties across the United States....
in 1978-79 and in new media throughout the 1990s. He produced Public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
cable TV shows at the Minneapolis Television Network in the early to mid-1990s with Schmidt, worked on ways to use digital media to draw political cartoons using Amiga computers from the late 1980s to late 1990s, and drew live political cartoons on KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC...
, Channel 9, the FOX affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul, on its morning news program on a weekly basis in 2004. Some of his new media cartooning efforts are posted on Wagner's http://www.wagtoons.com website of political cartoons, most of which were drawn between 1997-2002 for the Minnesota Daily.
Illustration and caricaturing
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Wagner funded many of his activist projects with income generated by caricaturing at parties and illustrating and designing books, posters and periodicals. "Get Off My Brain: The Lazy Students Survival Guide", published by Free Spirit Publishing, was one of his most successful book designs, based on the numerous printings of the book.Cultural impact
Despite the intensity and offensiveness of some of his work, Wagner developed a history of charming or winning over as friends many political enemies and targets of his attacks, something like the French philosopher, VoltaireVoltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
. Bernard Casserly, editor of the Catholic Bulletin based in St. Paul, MN, wrote a scathing editorial in 1975 against Wagner in response to a cartoon about the Kenneth Edelin trial in Boston, condemning Wagner as "vicious," "poisonous," "malicious" and "sophomoric." Yet Casserly wrote the glowing foreword 12 years later to Wagner's second book, "Buy This Too," after the two became friends. Minneapolis Daily American editor Francis R. McGovern, an extreme right-wing conservative who would have fit into today's Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
, at first lambasted Wagner but later praised his use of humor to engage students to participate in political activism, and also stated that he was "honored" to call Wagner a "great friend" and "a damn good clown." Rev. Joseph Head, an outspoken conservative activist who wrote a four-page, single-spaced, typewritten letter calling Wagner "A DANGEROUS ENEMY OF OUR COUNTRY!" in 1975, was a major participant in Wagner's "Generic Demonstration" at the University of Minnesota in 1982, and local news coverage by KSTP-TV
KSTP-TV
KSTP-TV, channel 5, is the ABC affiliate for the Twin Cities. Its transmitter is located at the Shoreview Telefarm. It is the flagship station of Hubbard Broadcasting, which also owns several other broadcasting properties across the United States....
broadcast the image of the 80+ year-old Head, in his three-cornered American Revolutionary hat and in front of his giant replica of the Liberty Bell, grinning happily with his arm around his former "foe," Wagner. Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich
Rudy Perpich
Rudolph George "Rudy" Perpich, Sr. was an American politician and the longest-serving governor of Minnesota. A member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, he served as the 34th and 36th Governor of Minnesota from December 29, 1976 to January 4, 1979, and from January 3, 1983, to January 7, 1991...
, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee J. Martin Klotsche
J. Martin Klotsche
J. Martin Klotsche , was an American professor of history and the first chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee....
and one mayor of Madison, Wisconsin were among those fans of Wagner who requested and in some cases paid for original cartoons that had criticized them,. United States Senator Paul Wellstone
Paul Wellstone
Paul David Wellstone was a two-term U.S. Senator from the state of Minnesota and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Before being elected to the Senate in 1990, he was a professor of political science at Carleton College...
, who was criticized by Wagner for his positions on regulating nutritional supplements, hosted exhibits of Wagner's cartoons in his offices.
Current activities
Since the early 1990s, Wagner has worked primarily as an instructor of cartooning at the University of Minnesota, where he completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2004 summa cum laude and did doctoral work in the Design program in 2004-2005, and at the Minneapolis College of Art and DesignMinneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit four-year and postgraduate college specializing in the visual arts. Located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, MCAD currently enrolls approximately 1,000 students offering curriculum that includes...
, and as a caricature artist performing at private events as an entertainer and drawing commissioned pieces from photographs. Wagner's frequently draws caricatures with his wife, Dian, as a team.
Books
- Wagner, Pete, Buy This Book. A Charter Member of the Slandered Seventies Sticks up for the Me Generation, 1980.
- Wagner, Pete, "Buy This Too". 1987.