Scott Henson, 1960-2012

The editorial and panel cartoonist Scott Henson died on June 26 after a lengthy and involved battle with heart disease. He was 52 years old. Henson had one of the more remarkable backstories in cartooning history. A trained neurosurgeon whose patients included the paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve, Henson moved into editorial cartooning and then a syndicated newspaper panel strip after beginning to suffer the effects of the heart disease that would eventually claim his life.

Henson was educated at Fairmont State University, West Virginia Tech and Marshall University. He took his residency at the University of Virginia Medical Center.

The medical practitioner's move into editorial cartooning came via the Charleton Gazette and Charleston Daily Mail in the 1990s. Henson had apparently done some medical illustration work while a practicing surgeon, and then illustrated a book project done with his father when practicing medicine became impossible due to his illness. A fan of classic MAD artists, Henson had an accomplished visual style reminiscent of the MAD story strips and traditional editorial cartooning more generally almost from the start, a remarkable thing given that this was a second career. Either winning or simply placing highly for a national award through the Scripps Howard Foundation -- the brief biographies out there seem to differ if it was a win or not -- put Henson on the radar of the syndicates.

Natural Selection, featuring a title and a pseudonym taken from the life and work the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, launched in 2000 with Creators Syndicate. The press material indicates he was 39 when the panel launched, which would have put the debut in the beginning of that year. There's also a mention here and there that the feature didn't drop until that Fall. The Sundays ran until 2002 and the dailies until 2007, when the cartoonist's health difficulties had developed in a way that kept him from doing the feature. It continued -- and continues -- to be featured on the syndicate's site as an on-line offering in reruns.

Henson is survived by two children, two brothers, a granddaughter and his parents. He was cremated and buried in a private ceremony.
 
posted 3:35 am PST | Permalink
 

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