Editorial cartoonist and photo journalist Robert "Bob" Owen Bastian was born on April 2, 1917 in Stockton, California. He learned the art of editorial cartooning in high school and decided that was what he wanted to pursue. After earning his Bachelor's in Political Science at the College of the Pacific in 1940, he began taking courses at the California School of Fine Arts (later the San Francisco Art Institute), studying under Dong Kingman. However, with the onset of World War II, Bastian left school to enlist in the Marines. He served in the Pacific theater and earned the rank of major after his participation in the Battle of Manila in 1945. This experience would inform his work throughout his career. 

After returning to San Francisco at the end of the war he found work as an advertising illustrator and a newspaper photographer. In 1953 he was hired as an editorial cartoonist by the San Francisco Chronicle, where he would remain for fourteen years. However, when the Newspaper Guild began striking for better wages, Bastian, who for years had felt a mounting disillusionment with the Chronicle, joined the strike. The Public Broadcasting Service's relatively new, Bay Area-based television news station, KQED, stepped up to offer jobs to the strikers. Bastian quit the Chronicle in 1968 and came on board. He was added to the round-table of journalists of "Newspaper of the Air," later called "Newsroom." As journalists discussed current political events, Bastian drew cartoons pertaining to the topic at hand, and showcased the collection of drawings at the end of every episode. His work made it one of the most popular shows on KQED, and he was given a Peabody Award. In 1969, KQED published a collection of his "television cartoons," titled The Best of Bastian.

Despite mounting successes, Bastian fell into a deep depression. On September 22, 1970, he completed suicide on Cronkhite Beach across the bay in the Marin Headlnads, Marin County. The following year, his widow, Beverly, held a retrospective of his work at the Landmarks Society Gallery in Tiburon, Marin County. Robert Bastian's work can be found in the collections of the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco and in the libraries of universities across the U.S.