John Trever – Cartooning Albuquerque

Political Cartoon Copyright John Trevor
Political Cartoon Courtesy John Trevor

On Sunday, November 17, 2024, at 2 pm, veteran local editorial cartoonist John Trever reflects on his nearly 50-year career at the Albuquerque Journal and the thousands of editorial cartoons he has created. The program will be held at the Albuquerque Museum at 2000 Mountain Rd. NW in Old Town. Parking is free in the lot south of the Museum. Admission to the Museum and the AHS program is also free.

“Cartooning Albuquerque” will focus on the city’s political history of the past 50 years, featuring our recent mayors and issues of growth, environment, economy, transportation and crime, illustrated by several dozen cartoons covering the good, bad, ugly and hopefully humorous sides of Albuquerque and its leaders.

Photo of John TrevorJohn Trever got an early start on his career by winning, at age 13, the first national Newspaper Comics Council contest with a drawing of Pogo. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1965, where he was the staff cartoonist for the Daily Orange. Following graduate studies in political science at the University of Chicago, he served with the Air Force as a Minuteman Missile Launch Officer. In 1976, after four years with the suburban Sentinel newspapers in Denver, John arrived in Albuquerque, where he has created over 10,000 cartoons for the Albuquerque Journal’s editorial page. His work has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Free Press Association, the New Mexico Legislature, the New Mexico Press Association, Albuquerque Arts Alliance and the Historical Society of New Mexico. His cartoons were syndicated to more than 350 daily newspapers by King Features Syndicate and to college papers through the College Press Service.

Trever’s cartoons have been collected in three volumes, published by the Albuquerque Publishing Company: The Trever Gallery: A Public Hanging (1992), The Trever GallerY2K: Drawing Fire (1999) and Mañana Republic (2007). In 2021 the UNM Press released a career retrospective, The Art and Humor of John Trever—Fifty Years of Political Cartooning.

John and his wife Karen, a retired Montessori teacher, have five grown children and eight grandchildren. He retired from daily cartooning and his national syndication in 2011, but continues doing a weekly cartoon for the Journal’s Sunday edition.