Pickles by Brian Crane

Brian Crane was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, in 1949 but grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He attended Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California, and graduated with a B.A. in Art from Brigham Young University in 1972, in Provo, Utah. After graduation Brian worked as a graphic designer, illustrator and art director at several newspapers, magazines and advertising agencies. In 1989 he created a newspaper comic strip, “Pickles,” which revolves around an elderly couple, Earl and Opal Pickles, and their daughter, grandson and pets. In 1990 Pickles was accepted for syndication by the Washington Post Writers Group. Since then it has received many awards, including Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2001 and 2019 by the National Cartoonists Society. In 2012 Brian received the National Cartoonist Society’s highest honor, the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. In 2014 Brian received the Inkpot Award for Achievement in Comic Arts by Comic-Con International. In addition, Pickles has topped newspaper comics polls across the nation again and again, and it appears in over 900 newspapers around the world. It is also in the top 10 comics published digitally daily on the GoComics.com web site. In 2022 The Washington Post ceased its newspaper syndication service and syndication for Pickles was taken over by Andrews McMeel Syndication. Also in 2022 Brian was elected to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. Brian’s proudest achievement, however, is his 50 year marriage to his wife, Diana, and their seven children and twenty-one grandchildren.