Naked Cartoonists

The dream, of cartooning aficionados everywhere, revealed in hushed tones only within the cult itself, is to know what their favorite cartoonist looks like —naked. Finally, a book that satisfies this unspoken fetish among cartoon fanatics.

Presenting Naked Cartoonists: Over 70 artists’ nude self-portraits, including Sergio Aragonés, Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner, Charles Schulz, Mort Walker, Scott Adams, Al Jaffee, Ann Telnaes, Jeff Smith, Trina Robbins, Lynn Johnston, Russell Myers, and dozens more.

Cartoonists are notoriously physically lovely, well-proportioned, statuesque, graceful, and always with a twinkle in their eyes, so in order not to make their readers envious or resentful, they often depict themselves in deliriously outlandish or humiliating situations and usually festooned with self-deprecating anatomical features. This is where cartoonists have to rely on nothing but their wit, inventiveness, and desperation to make themselves look as unattractive as humanly possible. In other words, as far from reality as they can possibly get. The cartoonists in this book succeed mightily at this gallant effort.

All the artists in Naked Cartoonists created the drawings for respected and beloved art agent Mark Cohen as a way of expressing their appreciation for his friendship and professional services. Cohen died in 1999, and this book is published in his honor. Each self-portrait is accompanied by a short bio, and the book is introduced by underground cartoonist and cartooning savant Frank Stack.

Over 70 star cartoonists. . . naked?!?

Gary Groth is the founder of The Comics Journal and also the co-founder and co-publisher of Fantagraphics Books. He lives in Seattle.