Veteran cartoonist Vikas Sabnis passed away on Friday following a brief illness. Born on 12 July 1950, Sabnis graduated from the prestigious Sir JJ School of Art and has also worked with legendary journalist Russi Karanjia. He describes the 80s and 90s as the golden era of cartooning.
Sabnis was inspired by cartoonists K Shankar Pillai, RK Laxman and Balasaheb Thackeray. Thackeray would himself draw cartoons for Marmik, a political satire weekly launched by him. However, due to his increasing political commitments, he later hand-picked Sabnis for the job. After working for Marmik for 12 years, Sabnis joined a Marathi daily, Loksatta. In his career of around 50 years, Sabnis. He was 69 and is survived by wife and son.
Cartoonists and artists across the state paid condolences to Sabnis through social media. This is a huge loss to the industry. His beautiful comics will be etched in our minds forever.