Paul Conrad, Pulitzer Prize cartoonist, dead at 86

LOS ANGELES - For more than half a century, cartoonist Paul Conrad poked fun at politicians, taking on presidents from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush.

Conrad, who died Saturday at age 86, won the Pulitzer Prize three times. He also made Richard Nixon's enemies list.

He died at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes, surrounded by his family, his son David said.

In Conrad's three decades at the Los Angeles Times, he was fierce in his liberalism and expressed it with a stark visual style. For decades, Southern California political junkies started their day either outraged or delighted at a Conrad drawing.

The Times said its publisher came to expect that his breakfast would be interrupted by an angry call from then-governor Ronald Reagan or wife Nancy, peeved about a Conrad cartoon that made them look foolish.

Conrad's favorite target was Nixon. When the president resigned, Conrad drew Nixon's helicopter leaving the White House with the caption: "One flew over the cuckoo's nest."

Democrats weren't safe either. After Jimmy Carter admitted that at times he had "lusted in his heart," Conrad drew him mentally undressing the Statue of Liberty.

He worked for 14 years at The Denver Post before moving to Los Angeles.

In addition to David, Paul Conrad is survived by another son, two daughters, and his wife of more than 60 years, Kay. - AP