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R.I.P. Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist
Jules Feiffer has died. The Pulitzer Prize-winning satirical cartoonist, who won an Oscar, wrote screenplays for Mike Nichols and Robert Altman, and illustrated The Phantom Tollbooth, died Friday of congestive heart failure, The New York Times confirmed through Feiffer's wife, JZ Holden. He was 95. Being a legendary Village Voice cartoonist for over 40 years was enough to put Feiffer in the history books. But Feiffer's ambitions stretched far beyond a comics panel, which he didn't use that much anyway. His career began under the occasionally combative tutelage of Will Eisner and touched page, stage, and screen. Born in the Bronx on January 26, 1929, Feiffer found art through his mother at age three. Feiffer's mother, a fashion designer who "always encouraged me to draw," bought him his first drawing table as a child. Feiffer said, "Cartooning in the 1930s and early '40s was a big deal. The comic strip was in its glory, and writing and drawing them came with a degree of aristocracy." Feiffer began working for Will Eisner after graduating high school in the '40s. He was 16, and Eisner didn't think much of Feiffer's prowess as an artist but appreciated his moxie. Feiffer worked on The Spirit, eventually revealing himself to be a better writer than an artist in Eisner's eyes. In the late '40s, the two hashed out story ideas for Eisner's groundbreaking comic with Eisner coming to respect and value Feiffer's ability to write nuanced characters. After a stint in the army, he got a job making satirical cartoons for The Village Voice, producing a strip called Sick Sick Sick that would subsequently be dubbed Feiffer. Defined by his borderless frames, scratchy lines, and neurotic characters, Feiffer's comics stripped comic strips to their essence. "It's all about storytelling and staging," he told The A.V. Club in 2008. "This is a dramatic form on paper. Long before I ever thought I'd write plays, I was staging these things so it would be most effective in making my point. I knew what I was saying in many of these strips was complicated and nuanced and unfamiliar to readers of comics, or for that matter, readers of anything in newspapers. So I wanted to bring the reader along in as unchallenging a way as possible, to basically hoodwink readers into looking at this very simple piece of work and thinking 'This is gonna be easy stuff,' and grabbing them by the throat." His comics were syndicated around the country and found a fan in Stanley Kubrick, who expressed "unqualified admiration for the scenic structure of your 'strips' and the eminently speakable and funny dialog." Feiffer's work wasn't a traditional narrative but bite-sized satires that eschewed the story for tone and message. In 1986, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. Simultaneous to his rise as a cartoonist, Feiffer won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the film Munro, which he wrote. His first play, the Obie Award-winning Little Murders, debuted in 1967, and a film adaptation directed by Alan Arkin and starring Elliot Gould followed in 1971. That year, a film based on Feiffer's unproduced stage play, Carnal Knowledge, was released. Directed by Mike Nichols and starring Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkle, and Ann-Margret, the film was a box office hit. Feiffer also wrote screenplays for Robert Alman's Popeye and Alain Resnais' I Want To Go Home. Feiffer was married three times and had three children. He is survived by his wife, JZ, three daughters, and two granddaughters.
Jules Feiffer has died. The Pulitzer Prize-winning satirical cartoonist, who won an Oscar, wrote screenplays for Mike Nichols and Robert Altman, and illustrated The Phantom Tollbooth, died Friday of congestive heart failure, The New York Times confirmed through Feiffer's wife, JZ Holden. He was 95.
Being a legendary Village Voice cartoonist for over 40 years was enough to put Feiffer in the history books. But Feiffer's ambitions stretched far beyond a comics panel, which he didn't use that much anyway. His career began under the occasionally combative tutelage of Will Eisner and touched page, stage, and screen. Born in the Bronx on January 26, 1929, Feiffer found art through his mother at age three. Feiffer's mother, a fashion designer who "always encouraged me to draw," bought him his first drawing table as a child. Feiffer said, "Cartooning in the 1930s and early '40s was a big deal. The comic strip was in its glory, and writing and drawing them came with a degree of aristocracy."
Feiffer began working for Will Eisner after graduating high school in the '40s. He was 16, and Eisner didn't think much of Feiffer's prowess as an artist but appreciated his moxie. Feiffer worked on The Spirit, eventually revealing himself to be a better writer than an artist in Eisner's eyes. In the late '40s, the two hashed out story ideas for Eisner's groundbreaking comic with Eisner coming to respect and value Feiffer's ability to write nuanced characters.
After a stint in the army, he got a job making satirical cartoons for The Village Voice, producing a strip called Sick Sick Sick that would subsequently be dubbed Feiffer. Defined by his borderless frames, scratchy lines, and neurotic characters, Feiffer's comics stripped comic strips to their essence.
"It's all about storytelling and staging," he told The A.V. Club in 2008. "This is a dramatic form on paper. Long before I ever thought I'd write plays, I was staging these things so it would be most effective in making my point. I knew what I was saying in many of these strips was complicated and nuanced and unfamiliar to readers of comics, or for that matter, readers of anything in newspapers. So I wanted to bring the reader along in as unchallenging a way as possible, to basically hoodwink readers into looking at this very simple piece of work and thinking 'This is gonna be easy stuff,' and grabbing them by the throat."
His comics were syndicated around the country and found a fan in Stanley Kubrick, who expressed "unqualified admiration for the scenic structure of your 'strips' and the eminently speakable and funny dialog." Feiffer's work wasn't a traditional narrative but bite-sized satires that eschewed the story for tone and message. In 1986, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.
Simultaneous to his rise as a cartoonist, Feiffer won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the film Munro, which he wrote. His first play, the Obie Award-winning Little Murders, debuted in 1967, and a film adaptation directed by Alan Arkin and starring Elliot Gould followed in 1971. That year, a film based on Feiffer's unproduced stage play, Carnal Knowledge, was released. Directed by Mike Nichols and starring Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkle, and Ann-Margret, the film was a box office hit. Feiffer also wrote screenplays for Robert Alman's Popeye and Alain Resnais' I Want To Go Home.
Feiffer was married three times and had three children. He is survived by his wife, JZ, three daughters, and two granddaughters.
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