Steve Breen

It's sometimes hard to wrap your head around a big story, and for most of us drawing editorial cartoons 9/11/ 01, that was the biggest story of our professional lives.

professional story drawing sometimes

I loved practical jokes. I loved being goofy on the playground, and I loved doing silly cartoons, but I was not this subversive little delinquent. I am an Eagle Scout, after all.

eagle loved i-am doing

A gorilla with a cellphone riding a bicycle is bound to generate some clever captions.

some bicycle riding clever

My parents always got a kick out of my art. I was always able to make them laugh. As I got older, I remember the thrill I got when I graduated from making my classmates laugh to making adults laugh. Kind of a watershed moment.

laugh parents moment art

I developed my love for the news because of my love for international news.

because international news love

Chess is a thinking person's game. But you don't have to be smart to know what's funny! Lots of check, mate!

game you funny thinking

My dad was an FBI agent. My mom and dad were straight arrow types, and I had a conservative, suburban Orange County upbringing.

mom-and-dad orange dad mom

It's a fun job, but it's stressful because you have to be funny. You have to have punch lines and captions. Be funny now! And if you're not inspired, they don't care - be funny now! They have to fill that hole the next day.

job day you funny

I'm fully aware that not every cartoon is Pulitzer material. That said, I'm proud of my Pulitzer portfolio, the 20 that got judged.

portfolio proud cartoon said

When I was starting out in 1988, I was doing cartoons on President George H. W. Bush, Iraq and the fall of Soviet Union.

cartoons doing president fall

I read the 'New York Times,' 'USA Today,' the 'Union-Tribune,' then go online to Drudge, CNN, Fox News, blogs.

new go news today

My favorite caricaturist is Al Hirschfeld. I'm always trying to give my caricatures that streamlined quality - and I often fall short.

short quality trying fall

When I look at someone's face, there's something in my brain that just clicks - that breaks down their face into the elements that go into a caricature. It might be like the way a chef tastes a dish and can break down into elements what went into it.

face look brain chef

I use a quill pen dipped in India ink. I also like Faber-Castell brush pens and Pigma Micron pens. And I work on Duo-Shade board.

pen like india work

Women are more difficult to caricature than men - partly because beauty is more difficult to caricature.

difficult women beauty men

For an encore, I might do health-care cartoons using my own blood. That will be my last act.

own will my-own blood

Comic-Con is incredibly important to San Diego, but that doesn't mean we can't poke a little fun at it!

little important fun mean

No one should ever be hurt or killed for saying, writing or drawing anything.

saying drawing hurt writing

Personally, I try to be provocative but not needlessly provocative in my work.

personally try provocative work

We can self-censor ourselves for various reasons, but we can't live in a world where some person or some group decides what's offensive and what's not.

live person group world