Jules Feiffer

1929-2025

Author and cartoonist Jules Feiffer broke barriers others would not touch. His comic strip was alive with sex, career stress, social alienation, marital troubles, and both self-doubt and joyful self-expression in equal measure. In an era before social media, his following was impressively large and durable. He died on January 17, 2025, from congestive heart failure. His latest graphic novel, Amazing Grapes, had just been published months earlier.

Jules Ralph Feiffer was born in The Bronx. His mother, who sold dress designs and watercolors door-to-door, encouraged his interest in drawing.

At 17, Feiffer joined the studio of prolific comic artist Will Eisner, writing dialogue balloons for The Spirit comics. Eisner valued Feiffer's "uncanny knack" for capturing natural speech. Eisner recalls that Feiffer "had a real ear for writing characters that lived and breathed….and nuances such as sounds and expressions." He attended Pratt Institute in 1947 to improve art skills.

In 1956, he joined the Village Voice as a satirist where he enjoyed immediate success, winning he 1986 Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning. His strip continued at the Voice for 42 years.

Feiffer wrote plays and screenplays, such as Little Murders and Carnal Knowledge. He won an Academy Award for Munro, a 1961 short cartoon. He published many books including collections of his artwork, novels, children’s books, and graphic novels. He was 95 years old.