Darrin Bell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group for nearly 20 years, was arrested Wednesday in California for possession of child pornography.
In a search of Bell’s home, authorities discovered over 100 videos and photos of child pornography, including computer-generated material, linked to an account owned by Bell, according to NBC News. The investigation began after Internet Crimes Against Children detectives discovered Bell’s account had uploaded 18 files containing child sexual abuse material to an online platform.
The Washington Post Writers Group syndicated Bell’s editorial cartoons from 2003 to 2022, distributing his comic strips to publications throughout the United States.
Bell, a longtime critic of Donald Trump, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for his cartoons "that took on issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration."
In 2023, Bell published The Talk, a graphic memoir on "police brutality and anti-Blackness in twenty-first-century Amerikkka [sic]." Bell said the book was inspired by George Floyd’s death in 2020, telling ABC News that parents should "take away some innocence" from children by discussing racial issues in America.
Bell is being held on $1 million bail at the Sacramento County jail and is scheduled to appear in court Friday.