In a recent e-mail conversation with the cartoonist Harry Bliss, I complimented him on his latest drawing in the magazine, “Husband Descending a Staircase After Tripping on His Wife’s Shoes.” His response was that the drawing was autobiographical—he’s constantly tripping on his wife’s shoes on the stairs. This made me to wonder whether my other colleagues would be willing to share an autobiographical moment that they’d worked into a cartoon for The New Yorker. Many agreed. Included with Charles Barsotti’s contribution were some words of advice: “Don’t give away too much. Let them think it’s magic.”
It’s autobiographical in a general sense, and as much as I’m going to tell. Let ’em wait for the movie, I say.
—Charles Barsotti
This doesn’t get any more autobiographical for me …. A couple years back, I published a children’s book, “Bailey,” about a dog that attends school. The reviews were stellar, and the picture book seemed to be destined to make the best-seller list. However, my publisher, Scholastic, informed me that they couldn’t send me on a book tour or give my book the proper publicity budget, owing to the fact that they were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of their signature character, Clifford the Big Red Dog, that year. My adorable Bailey’s promotional budget went to a fifty-year-old has-been. This made me very angry, thus the cartoon.
—Harry Bliss
This is autobiographical, but it’s also biographical for most people with kids.
—Pat Byrnes
This cartoon is pretty much a direct quote from my daughter, who was around sixteen at the time. She was doing her homework and listening to some sort of pop music. We all know how revolting one’s decrepit parent-body is to one’s teen-ager. If you want to gild that lily of disgust, just dance in front your teen. At the time, I think I was trying to see if she noticed me. She did. She looked up and said, word for word, what the girl in the cartoon said, which made me laugh.
—Roz Chast
I have one cartoon that is far and away the most autobiographical I’ve ever done. I drew it for the 2012 election. It’s been construed as being a criticism of President Obama, but that was the furthest thing from my mind. It was based entirely on my own excruciatingly bad work habits. I am a consummate procrastinator who never met a last minute that he didn’t work right up until. I am almost incapable of focussing on a task until twenty-four hours before it’s due and the sound of a massive clock starts ticking in my head. The “epic all-nighter” in the caption represents my weekly ritual of getting my new ideas ready to submit to the Cartoon Editor, and I’m sure I came up with this one while neck deep in a caffeine-fuelled overnight deadline crunch.
—Joe Dator
I thought of it as I tried to perform this pose and was kicked out of the class for talking about it.
—Bob Eckstein
I’m the mysterious stranger, or, at least, I think I am, sometimes!
—Andy Friedman, a.k.a. Larry Hat
I have many cartoons that are practically reënactments of scenes from my life (see: any cartoon with a mom and daughter), but my sweatpants cartoon is probably the most autobiographical of me as a whole. The idea for this cartoon started from something that a friend said, that she didn’t want to turn into the sort of person who wears sweatpants everywhere. As she was saying this, I realized that not only do I wear sweatpants (or some version thereof) frequently but I aspire to wear sweatpants as much as possible. For me, a fun night is one spent at home, shopping for the perfect pair of sweatpants.
—Amy Hwang
Mine are pretty much all autobiographical. But this one happens often at our house: I’m a clean-as-you-cook kind of person, whereas Michael [Crawford] is a clean-everything-afterward kind of person, so the dishwashing duty is much more onerous on the person who doesn’t cook when that person is me!
—Carolita Johnson
I once called my father to say hi. When I asked what he was up to, he told me that he was “painting the basement floor.” That is not a euphemism. I would not describe my parents—both still alive—as anal, or as neat freaks, or even as fussy, but they clean and fix and upgrade for recreation. And when they do indeed shuffle off this mortal coil, they would not wish to leave a stain. This has passed down to my greeting anyone entering my environment—be it home, car, or studio—with “Please excuse my mess.”
—John Klossner
A fashionisto divo friend of mine would tell me to stop smiling whenever we went out to groovy fashiony events. Hence, this cartoon.
—Marisa Acocella Marchetto
This cartoon is my autobiography, complete and unabridged.
—Paul Noth
I love this cartoon because I tossed it off in a fit of pique that really captured the moment of how awful it is to be trapped in a meeting with a boss / king / potentate whose main task is not to lead the troops but suck all the oxygen out of the room and abuse one and all for the sake of entertainment. Ironically, the idea was born from a very uplifting commercial where a sincere guy started his business meetings with “Can everybody hear me?”
P.S.: You might noticed how truly “tossed off” the drawing is. In fact, it was returned to me with an obscure bit of notation at the bottom that read “Draw better.” I didn’t. I hope Mr. Thurber would be proud.
—Michael Shaw
This gag was drawn while I was having a particularly difficult time getting the cable repairman to show up for a scheduled appointment. After the umpteenth four-hour window opened and closed without a visit, I decided I needed to vent my frustration. One of the benefits of being a cartoonist, I guess, is that I can kill the cable guy without actually committing a crime.
—Ben Schwartz
This cartoon comes directly from my childhood. My father (changed to “grandpa” here) was a first-generation immigrant who had an uncanny ability to make nearly starving to death and being chased by bloodthirsty Cossacks sound positively romantic. First, he would hit me over the head with boyhood tales of suffering in order to silence any complaints I might have had about excessive homework or not being allowed to watch cartoons on television because they weren’t “educational.” Next, his eyes would glaze over and he would wave his hand in the air to encompass the vast, palatial confines of our two-bedroom Upper West Side apartment and all the pleasures of modern life it contained. “Television,” he would utter mournfully, “all this luxury—is this happiness? Sitting around a table on a dirt floor with your eight brothers and sisters, having a little something to eat when yesterday you had nothing—that’s happiness.”
—David Sipress
I had a heck of a time (pardon my language) finding a cartoon of mine that was actually based on personal experience. I’ve never found myself dying of thirst while crawling through a barren desert, for instance, or rolling a big rock up the side of a mountain for eternity, or suddenly being crushed by a falling piano. As I scrolled through some of my work, though, I found this one, in which the cartoon guy is engaged in doing something I often do when I’m not doodling: mainly nothing, which I must admit can be a very pleasant pastime.
—Mick Stevens
I’ve never met a doctor who I didn’t ignore.
—P. C. Vey
I had my grandpa in mind every step of the way. He was a classic raconteur and entertainer and a big inspiration. When, surprisingly, the cartoon sold, I took extra pains to try to capture his “Johnston nose” and even put “Johnston,” my mother’s maiden name, on the cart.
—Liam Walsh
I’m the unseen Mom in this cartoon. Most of my worrying mom or women-runner cartoons are somewhat autobiographical.
—Kim Warp
My kids are a total pain in the ass, and they correct me when I tell stories … it’s usually only in front of other people though.
—Shannon Wheeler
This is … almost annoyingly autobiographical. I’d been through a few changes and had been living solo for a couple of years, and people kept saying, “You need to get a dog.” I kept putting them off. But a couple of months after this drawing appeared, I did get a dog at the local pound. It was a good move.
—Jack Ziegler
