Jules Feiffer

Jules Ralph Feiffer ( ; January 26, 1929 – January 17, 2025) was an American cartoonist and author, who at one time was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for editorial cartooning, and in 2004 he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame. He wrote the animated short ''Munro'', which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961. The Library of Congress has recognized his "remarkable legacy", from 1946 to the present, as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, adult and children's book author, illustrator, and art instructor.

When Feiffer was 17 (in the mid-1940s) he became assistant to cartoonist Will Eisner. There he helped Eisner write and illustrate his comic strips, including '' The Spirit''. In 1956, he became a staff cartoonist at ''The Village Voice'', where he produced the weekly comic strip titled ''Feiffer'' until 1997. His cartoons became nationally syndicated in 1959 and then appeared regularly in publications including the ''Los Angeles Times'', the '' London Observer'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Playboy'', ''Esquire'', and ''The Nation''. In 1997, he created the first op-ed page comic strip for ''The New York Times'', which ran monthly until 2000.

Feiffer wrote more than 35 books, plays, and screenplays. His first of many collections of satirical cartoons, ''Sick, Sick, Sick,'' was published in 1958, and his first novel, ''Harry, the Rat With Women'', in 1963. In 1965, he wrote ''The Great Comic Book Heroes'', the first history of the comic-book superheroes of the late 1930s and early 1940s and a tribute to their creators. In 1979, Feiffer created his first graphic novel, ''Tantrum''. By 1993, he began writing and illustrating books aimed at young readers, with several of them winning awards.

Feiffer began writing for the theater and film in 1961, with plays including '' Little Murders'' (1967), ''Feiffer's People'' (1969), and '' Knock Knock'' (1976). He wrote the screenplay for '' Carnal Knowledge'' (1971), directed by Mike Nichols, and ''Popeye. At the time of his death, he was working on a visual memoir.

Early life

Feiffer was born in The Bronx, New York City, on January 26, 1929.''Comics Buyer's Guide'' #1650; February 2009; Page 107 His parents were David Feiffer and Rhoda (), and Feiffer was raised in a Jewish household with a younger and an older sister.Silvey, Ed. ''The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2002) p. 154 His father was usually unemployed in his work as a salesman due to the Depression. His mother was a fashion designer who made watercolor drawings of her designs which she sold to various clothing manufacturers in New York. "She'd go door to door selling her designs for $3," recalled Feiffer. The fact that she was the breadwinner, however, created an "atmosphere of silent blame" in the home. Feiffer began drawing at the age of 3. "My mother always encouraged me to draw", he said.Feiffer, Jules
"The Return of Cartoonist Jules Feiffer"
''The Wall Street Journal'', June 16, 2015

When he was 13, his mother gave him a drawing table for his bedroom. She also enrolled him in the Art Students League of New York to study anatomy. He graduated from James Monroe High School in 1947. He won a John Wanamaker Art Contest medal for a crayon drawing of the radio Western hero Tom Mix.Feiffer, Jules. ''The Great Comic Book Heroes'' (The Dial Press, New York, first trade paperback edition, 1977), p. 12. . Ellipses after "Green Hornet" in original text. He wrote in 1965 about his childhood:

Feiffer said that cartoons were his first interest when young, "what I loved the most." He stated that because he couldn't write well enough to be a writer, or draw well enough to be an artist, he realized that the best way to succeed would be to combine his limited talents in each of those fields to create something unique. He read comic strips from various newspapers which his father brought home, and was mostly attracted to the way they told stories. "What I loved best about these comics was that they created a very personal world in which almost anything could take place", Feiffer said. "And readers would accept it even if it had nothing to do with any other kind of world. It was the fantasy world I loved."

Among his favorite cartoons were '' Our Boarding House'', '' Alley Oop'' and '' Wash Tubbs''.Feiffer, ''The Great Comic Book Heroes'', pp. 12–13 He began to decipher features of different cartoonists, such as the sentimental naturalism of '' Abbie an' Slats'', the reston Sturges-like characters and plots of others, with cadenced dialogue. He recalls that Will Eisner's '' Spirit'' rivaled them in structure. And no strip, except ilton Caniff's '' Terry nd the Pirates', rivaled it in atmosphere."Feiffer, ''The Great Comic Book Heroes'', p. 13

Career

Cartoonist

With Will Eisner (1946–1956)

After Feiffer graduated from high school at 16, he was desperate for a job, and went unannounced to the office of one of his favorite cartoonists, Will Eisner. Eisner was sympathetic to young Feiffer, as Eisner had been in a similar situation when he first started out. He asked Feiffer, "What can you do?" He answered, "I'll do anything. I'll do coloring, or clean-up, or anything, and I'd like to work for nothing."Schumacher, Michael. ''Will Eisner: A Dreamer's Life in Comics'', Bloomsbury Publishing (2010) pp. 98–100 However, Eisner was unimpressed by Feiffer's art abilities and did not know how he could employ him. Eisner ultimately decided to give him a low-paying job when he found out that Feiffer "knew more about him than anybody who had ever lived," said Feiffer. "He had no choice but to hire me as a groupie."

Eisner considered Feiffer a mediocre artist, but he "liked the kid's spunk and intensity", writes Eisner biographer Michael Schumacher. Eisner was also aware that they both came from similar backgrounds, despite his being twelve years older. They both had fathers who struggled to support their family, and both their mothers were strong figures who held the family together through hardships. "He had a hunger for comics that Eisner rarely saw in artists", notes Schumacher. "Eisner decided that there was something to this wisecracking kid." When Feiffer later asked for a raise, Eisner instead gave him his own page in ''The Spirit'' section, and let him do his own coloring.Feiffer, Jules. ''Backing into Forward: A Memoir'', Doubleday, 2010. As Eisner recalled in 1978:

They collaborated well on ''The Spirit'', sharing ideas, arguing points, and making changes when they agreed. In 1947, Feiffer also attended the Pratt Institute for a year to improve his art style. Over time, Eisner valued Feiffer's opinions and judgments more often, appreciating his "uncanny knack" for capturing the way people talked, without using contrived dialogue. Eisner recalls that Feiffer "had a real ear for writing characters that lived and breathed. Jules was always attentive to nuances, such as sounds and expressions" which made stories seem more real.

At ''The Village Voice'' (1956–1997)

After working with Eisner for nearly a decade, he chose to start creating his own comic strips. In 1956, after again first proving his talent by working for free, he became a staff cartoonist at ''The Village Voice'' where he produced a weekly comic strip. Feiffer's strips ran for 42 years, until 1997, at first titled ''Sick Sick Sick'', then as ''Feiffer's Fables'', and finally as simply ''Feiffer''. After a year with the ''Voice'', Feiffer compiled a collection of many of his satire cartoons into a best-selling book, ''Sick Sick Sick: A Guide to Non-Confident Living'' (1958), a dissection of popular social and political neuroses. The success of that collection led to his becoming a regular contributor to the '' London Observer'' and ''Playboy'' magazine."The Jules Feiffer Interview"
''The Comics Journal 124'', 1988. Director Stanley Kubrick, a fellow Bronx native, invited Feiffer to write a screenplay for ''Sick, Sick, Sick'', although the film was never made. After first becoming aware of Feiffer's work, Kubrick wrote him in 1958:

By April 1959, ''Feiffer'' was distributed nationally by the Hall Syndicate, initially in ''The Boston Globe'', '' Minneapolis Star Tribune'', '' Newark Star-Ledger'' and '' Long Island Press''.Feiffer, Jules. ''Explainers: The Complete Village Voice Strips (1956–1966)'', Fantagraphics Books, 2008. Eventually, his strips covered the nation, including magazines, and were published regularly in major publications such as the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Esquire'', ''Playboy'' and ''The Nation''. He was commissioned in 1997 by ''The New York Times'' to create its first op-ed page comic strip, which ran monthly until 2000.

Feiffer's cartoons were typically mini- satires, where he portrayed ordinary people's thoughts about subjects such as sex, marriage, violence and politics. Writer Larry DuBois describes Feiffer's cartoon style:

Author

Feiffer published the hit ''Sick, Sick, Sick: A Guide to Non-Confident Living'' in 1958 (which featured a collection of cartoons from about 1950 to 1956), and followed up with ''More Sick, Sick, Sick'' and other strip collections, including ''The Explainers''; ''Boy, Girl. Boy, Girl.''; ''Hold Me!''; ''Feiffer's Album''; ''The Unexpurgated Memoirs of Bernard Mergendeiler''; ''Feiffer on Nixon''; ''Jules Feiffer's America: From Eisenhower to Reagan''; ''Marriage Is an Invasion of Privacy''; and ''Feiffer's Children''. ''Passionella'' (1957) is a graphic narrative initially anthologized in ''Passionella and Other Stories'', a variation on the story of ''Cinderella''. The protagonist is Ella, a chimney sweep who is transformed into a Hollywood movie star. ''Passionella'' was used as one part of the 1966 Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock Broadway musical '' The Apple Tree''.

His cartoons, strips and illustrations have been reprinted by Fantagraphics as ''Feiffer: The Collected Works''. ''Explainers'' (2008) reprints all of his strips from 1956 to 1966. David Kamp reviewed the book in ''The New York Times'':

Feiffer has written two novels (1963's ''Harry the Rat with Women'', 1977's ''Ackroyd'') and several children's books, including '' Bark, George''; ''Henry, The Dog with No Tail''; ''A Room with a Zoo''; ''The Daddy Mountain''; and '' A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears''. He partnered with The Walt Disney Company and writer Andrew Lippa to adapt his book ''The Man in the Ceiling'' into a musical. He illustrated the children's books ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' and ''The Odious Ogre''. His non-fiction includes the 1965 book ''The Great Comic Book Heroes''.

Feiffer also wrote and drew one of the earliest graphic novels, the hardcover ''Tantrum'' ( Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), described on its dustjacket as a "novel-in-pictures". Like the trade paperback ''The Silver Surfer'' ( Simon & Schuster/Fireside Books, August 1978), by Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and the hardcover and trade paperback versions of Will Eisner's '' A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories'' (Baronet Books, October 1978), this was published by a traditional book publisher and distributed through bookstores, whereas other early graphic novels, such as ''Sabre'' ( Eclipse Books, August 1978), were distributed through some of the first comic-book stores.

His autobiography, ''Backing into Forward: A Memoir'' (Doubleday, 2010), received positive reviews from ''The New York Times'' and ''Publishers Weekly'', which wrote:

He has had retrospectives at the New York Historical Society, the Library of Congress and The School of Visual Arts. His artwork is exhibited at and represented by Chicago's Jean Albano Gallery. In 1996, Feiffer donated his papers and several hundred original cartoons and book illustrations to the Library of Congress.

In 2014, Feiffer published ''Kill My Mother: A Graphic Novel'' through Liveright Publishing. ''Kill My Mother'' was named a ''Vanity Fair'' Best Book of 2014 and a ''Kirkus Reviews'' Best Fiction Book of 2014. In 2016, Feiffer published ''Cousin Joseph: A Graphic Novel'', a prequel to ''Kill My Mother''. ''Cousin Joseph'' was also published through Liveright Publishing, and was a ''New York Times'' Bestseller, named one of ''The Washington Post'''s Best Graphic Novels of the Year, and was nominated for the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize. A third book in the series, ''The Ghost Script: A Graphic Novel'', was published by Liveright in 2018.

Feiffer's picture book for young readers, ''Rupert Can Dance'', was published by FSG in 2014.

Playwright and screenwriter

Feiffer's plays include '' Little Murders'' (1967), ''Feiffer's People'' (1969), ''Knock Knock'' (1976), ''Elliot Loves'' (1990), ''The White House Murder Case'', and ''Grown Ups''. After Mike Nichols adapted Feiffer's unproduced play '' Carnal Knowledge'' as a 1971 film, Feiffer scripted Robert Altman's ''Popeye

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