Joel Pett has been the editorial cartoonist at the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1984. His cartoons have appeared in hundreds of papers and magazines nationwide, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Daily News, Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Newsweek, George, Business Week, MS. and Discover.

Having observed life in over twenty-five countries, from his boyhood home in Nigeria, down the Amazon, to Red Square, Tiananmen Square, and beyond, Pett sums up his philosophy simply: God help us, and soon…extra cream, please.

Pett was the 1999 winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for outstanding journalistic coverage of the disadvantaged, and the 1995 winner of the Global Media Award for cartoons on population issues. He has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning, in 1989 and 1998. He is a past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

Petts's cartoons are available in four paperback collections, the latest being Just Don't Inhale. Joel Pett is proudest of a college intramural golf title, and of shutting out a Kentucky basketball player in a celebrity game of HORSE. His list of embarrassments is endless.