In a Cincinnati Enquirer newsroom filled with talent and eccentrics in the 1970s, illustrator Jerry Dowling was both.
Dowling, who died at age 85 Saturday, was a prolific cartoonist who poked fun at the Big Red Machine, Bengals and Bearcats for the sports pages, as well as numerous celebrities for the Sunday entertainment section in the last half of the 20th century.
A Dowling cartoon was unmistakable. And merciless. Elvis Presley was so upset by Dowling’s depiction of him as fat and old that Presley brought it on stage at Riverfront Coliseum in 1977 and showed it to the audience.
“Jerry wore that like an Olympic gold medal,” says Jim Borgman, his former Enquirer colleague. There was nothing subtle about a Dowling cartoon. “It was a wonder to behold. His lines were bold, his opinions bolder.”…