Wicks Cartoon: Proposed L.A. Restaurant Smoking Ban

Cartoon images ©The Signal. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Adam and Eve are run out of the Garden of Eden for smoking cigarettes. Original pen-and-ink cartoon by Randy Wicks, 7½x12 inches, published in The Signal on Thursday, May 31, 1990. From the collection of Jo Anne Darcy.

Randy Wicks, a 1980 CalArts graduate, was The Signal's in-house cartoonist from 1980 until his untimely death at age 41 in 1996. News stories provided the spark for most of his creations. Wicks was a voracious consumer of news, known to read not only The Signal but also the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Daily News and other newspapers every day, cover to cover, by the time the rest of the editorial staff checked in for work in the morning.

Cigarette smoking was a hot topic in 1990. The U.S. Senate held hearings on its health effects in February, smoking-cessation gurus were regular Signal advertisers, and before the year was out, the Saugus Union School District went smoke-free. (The other local school districts still allowed teachers to smoke in designated areas.)

On May 30, the day before this Wicks cartoon was published, The Signal and L.A. Times ran news stories about a proposal by Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude to ban smoking in L.A. restaurants. Despite having the support of the California Restaurant Association, the ban failed on a 6-6 tie vote in October.