Political cartoonist Paul Conrad dies

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Paul Conrad has died in California of natural causes at age 86, his son announced.

Conrad -- who spent nearly 30 years at the Los Angeles Times and won three Pulitzers -- died at his home in Rancho Palos Verdes.

"When it comes to editorial cartooning, I am unabashedly biased: Paul Conrad was simply the best ever," Times editor Russ Stanton said Saturday. "Whether or not you agreed with his politics, readers waited every morning for his dose of political commentary, guaranteed to make them either angry, to think or to laugh. And his work inspired other cartoonists and writers to speak truth to power. The Los Angeles Times was fortunate to be part of his long and prolific career, and we have missed him since the day he retired."

Conrad embraced the unofficial journalist's doctrine of "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted," the Times said. Conrad once said, "Don't ever accuse me of being objective."

Conrad's political cartoons so enraged former President Richard Nixon that Nixon named him to his infamous "enemies list," which the cartoonist said was one of his greatest honors.

He once received a letter from the late Frank Sinatra, who condemned him for poking fun at former President Ronald Reagan, then governor of California.

Conrad quipped his cartooning career began with a drawing he scratched on a restroom wall when he was 8, the Times said.

He is survived by his wife Kay, sons Jamie and David, daughters Carol and Libby, and a granddaughter.