Fifty-seven years ago, Joe Farris published his first cartoon in The New Yorker:
Over the years, he would go on to publish two hundred and sixty-nine more. This last one appeared in 2010:
Joe passed away last week, at the age of ninety. In addition to being an accomplished New Yorker cartoonist for five decades, he published cartoons in virtually all of the major magazines that used cartoons, when major magazines still used cartoons.
The art in a cartoon and the idea behind it should go hand in hand. Sometimes, a whimsical, even primitive, style suits an idea best, but other times bravura, top-of-the-line draftsmanship is what’s wanted. On that front, Joe was never found wanting, as these three gems attest:
Besides being a great cartoonist, Joe was also a member of that courageous cohort known as the Greatest Generation. Joe probably would have none of that puffery, but he did serve on the front lines in France and Germany. In 2012, National Geographic published Joe’s “A Soldier’s Sketchbook,” a memoir of his time in the war. The book includes his letters home to his family and the art work he did when he wasn’t doing rifle work. The memoir was one of Joe’s proudest accomplishments.
I could go on about Joe. But it makes more sense to let Joe go on, with a slide show of his cartoons:
