Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist with Bay Area ties is arrested, suspected of possessing child porn

A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who was educated at UC Berkeley has been arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography, authorities said.

Detectives arrested 49-year-old Darrin Bell on Wednesday morning, according to a statement from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. The arrest came after a a brief investigation brought on by a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Bell writes the comic strips, “Candorville” and “Rudy Park.”

The Sacramento Valley Internet Crimes Against Children conducted the investigation. According to the sheriff’s office, the tip related to the uploading of 18 files of child sex abuse material. Authorities said they found 134 videos of child porn linked to the same account.

Authorities said Bell owned and controlled the account.

Detectives served a search warrant at Bell’s home and recovered evidence, as well as AI-generated material, authorities said. It’s the first arrest by the Sacramento Valley ICAC of a suspect for owning AI-generated material; the law changed Jan. 1 to include AI material as a criminal offense.

Authorities in Sacramento said they held Bell in custody in lieu of $1 million bail.

Bell won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning as a freelancer, with the Pulitzer Prize Board writing that he was honored “for beautiful and daring editorial cartoons that took on issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration.”

He launched the strip, “Candorville,” into newspapers in 2003 via, the Washington Post Writers Group, which began syndicating his editorial cartoons in 2013. He created “Rudy Park” in 1997 and self-syndicated it into technology magazines. His cartoons now run through King Features Syndicate.

Bell started his cartooning career while at the Daily Cal at UC Berkeley in 1995. He was the Daily Cal’s staff cartoonist and while there, began freelancing to the Opinion Pages of the Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times.