Caricatures By Pete & Dian Wagner

Specialties

We specialize in performing as entertainers, drawing caricatures that are perfect for events and drawing in a way that is FUN, not just cranking them out like a human photo booth. We interact with your guests in a way that makes it super-​enjoyable to be drawn and to watch as we draw. Because we are the «Fastest Drawers in the Midwest,» as proven in VIDEO on our website, we are better suited to caricaturing at events than most others. We are great with kids including very young children who can’t possibly sit still. We were doing event caricaturing in the 1970s, before others had even thought of it, and we have perfected it as an entertainment attraction.

History

Established in 1972.

Pete Wagner was the first to introduce caricaturing as an entertainer at events in the Midwest, performing at charitable events to help raise money in the early 1970s. Pete performed standup comedy in which he drew caricatures of members of the audience in the later 1970s. He began hiring out on an hourly basis in 1981 when a friend who was a Public Relations Society of America member recruited him to draw at one of their events in Minneapolis. While the staff cartoonist at City Pages, the major Minneapolis metro weekly from 1982 – 92, Pete began doing event caricaturing on a regular basis and performed standup cartooning at Scott Hansen’s Comedy Gallery every week for an extended run in 1990. Our small company sticks only with those few artists whose hearts are really in it and who have a natural gift for performing in live situations, at a speed that is practical for events.

Meet the Business Owner

Pete W.

Business Owner

Pete Wagner is a well-​known cartoonist who was on the staffs of several major newspapers in Minneapolis, Madison (Wisconsin), Milwaukee and national magazines for a total of over 35 years. He was syndicated to over 300 papers during that time, and won numerous major national and regional awards, including a national Society of Professional Journalists award. His work has been shown in many museums and theaters, including the Whitney Museum of Art in New York. He is a major innovator who started the world’s first periodical free humor tabloid, «Minne HA! HA!, The Twin Cities’ Sorely Needed Humor Magazine,» many years before the Onion. Pete is author of two books that preceded the graphic novel format by several years, Buy This Book (1980) and Buy This Too (1987). For more information including his prominent role as an activist, see his Wikipedia entry.