Pat Oliphant - Pencil Prelim for 1981 Reagan Political Cartoon

I love seeing process work, and was very happy to be able to acquire a couple of wonderful pencil sketches by the great Pat Oliphant. This piece was done for a cartoon which appeared on September 2, 1981, and shows Reagan chatting with an old 49er who is panning for gold. The minor says, "Up, PATCO's still on strike and the postal workers ain't. North Korea tossed a missile at a U.S. plane. The medflies are gettin' worse and the interest rates...hey, you gone to sleep agin, boy?" A print of the published piece accompanies this drawing.

9/2/18 addendum: I wrote to Oliphant, asking if I could send this prelim and the other to be signed. I enclosed photocopies of the pieces. Months later, he sent back the photocopies, signed. Ah well. Provenance.