Cartoonists John Rose and Thomas Yeates to speak at Bridgewater College

John Rose, cartoonist for King Features’ Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip, and Thomas Yeates, illustrator for Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, will talk about their work on Thursday, Feb. 8, in Cole Hall at Bridgewater College.

Rose will present his Snuffy Smith chalk talk at 4 p.m., and Yeates will speak at 7 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

Rose has worked on the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip since 1998. He began as an inking assistant to cartoon legend Fred Lasswell, before becoming the strip’s full-time cartoonist following Laswell’s death in March 2001.

A native of Virginia, Rose earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from James Madison University. He joined Byrd Newspapers of Virginia in 1988, working at the Warren Sentinel before joining the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record.

His cartoons have won awards from the National Newspaper Association and the Virginia Press Association. In addition to appearing in the Byrd Newspaper chain, his editorial cartoons are distributed by the Scripps Howard News Service. Rose has had two editorial cartoon collections of his work published—Cartoons That Fit the Bill and Now This Is Where I Draw The Line! His cartoons have also been featured in the Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year collections (Pelican Publishing) each year since 1994.

In April 2012, Yeates became the illustrator for “Prince Valiant,” a comic strip created by Foster in 1937. “Prince Valiant” is printed every Sunday in newspapers and online at comicskingdom.com.

Yeates has drawn comics for more than 25 years.

He worked for DC Comics on numerous series, including Warlord, Mystery in Space and Swamp Thing. He worked for Eclipse Comics on titles, including Airboy, Scout, Lugar, the political documentary Brought to Light, and Aztec Ace. For T.S.R., he illustrated the Dragonlance saga based on the Dungeons and Dragons game.

In the early 1990s, Yeates illustrated 15 Tarzan comics, many for Dark Horse. “The Return of Tarzan” featured his adaptation into comics of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ second Tarzan novel. He also illustrated Dracula vs. Zorro for Topps comics.

During 2007-08, he illustrated seven novels in the graphic myths series for Lerner publishing, including King Arthur, Odysseus, Atalanta, Lancelot and Robin Hood.

In 2011 he began work on a western graphic novel based on Louis L’Amour’s Law of the Desert Born. The graphic novel won five awards and was nominated for the 2014 Eisner Award.

Yeates was a member of the first class at Joe Kubert’s School, a trade program for aspiring comic artists.

Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state’s first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to more than 1,900 undergraduate students.