Roy Doty passes at age 92

Alan Gardner March 18, 2015 1 minute 4 comments

Prolific cartoonist and illustrator Roy Doty passed away this morning at the age of 92. The one and only time I met Roy was in 2006 when I visited the Ohio State University Cartoon Library (Now Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum). At 84, he told me he was working full-time and was so busy that he had to turn away work.

The NCS has posted a tribute to Roy and his career.

Roty Doty was a giant in the field of cartooning. He began his career cartooning while serving in World War II, and worked for seventy years as a freelancer. His numerous credits include the feature ?Wordless Workshop?, which ran in syndication for 50 years and more recently ran in Family Handyman magazine, and the syndicated feature ?Laugh-In? based on the popular TV show ?Rowan and Martin?s Laugh-In?, which ran from 1969-72, . His gag cartoons and features have been seen in The New York Times, Field & Stream, Popular Science, the London Daily Mail, Elle and many other magazines. He was one of the the most prominent and sought after cartoon illustrators in advertising, with clients including Buick, Black & Decker, Ford, Macy?s, Minute Maid, Mobil Oil, Texas Instruments and Perrier. He also hosted a children?s TV show called The Roy Doty Show, for DuMont Television Network.

Roy has been honored numerous times by the NCS, including NCS Divisional Awards (Silver Reubens) for Advertising Illustration in 1967,70,78,89,96 and 2005, and for Greeting Cards in 1994. Roy was given the NCS Gold Key Hall of fame award in 2010 in honor of his long and outstanding career.

Here’s an example of his Wordless Workshop comic:

roy-doty-wordless-workshop

My condolences to his family and friends. I enjoyed his conversation for one evening and came away inspired. He’ll be missed.

Comments ⁴

Mike Lester

A treasure and an honor to have known him. Gods speed.

mike peters

When I was 13 my aunt Viv gave me a book called “The Complete Guide to Cartooning” It was one of the great gifts of my life. , I carried it everywhere,( I still have it ) it had all my cartoon idols in it , Mauldin, Chick Young, Al Capp,Schulz, And it had a young guy who was a giant in the profession at that time, Roy Doty. When I finally met him and we became friends it was one of the great gifts I recieved from NCS . As Mike Lester said he was a treasure, a National Treasure and He will be missed.

Paul Combs

My first conversation with Roy went like this…

Me: Hi, I’m Paul Combs.

Roy: Just because you’re damn good doesn’t mean work is going to find you. Get off your ass and go get it!

Me: Ummmm, yes, sir.

Roy: Now, do you know where the wet bar is?

I was afraid to talk to him the rest of the day:)

Over time I came to know this as a compliment from a master and priceless advice from somebody who made their own way and had a long career doing it. I will miss his blunt honesty and brutal sense of humor. Roy was an absolute original!

Jon Carter

I remember meeting Roy once, years ago- the late 90’s at a NCS midwest function in Richmond, Indiana, where I lived at the time. It was an incredible experience to meet a true legend in the field of cartooning. He did a sketch for me, which I still have and will always treasure.
I think he’s what every cartoonist aspires to be- and I’d love to still be working my ass off in cartooning well into my 80’s and 90’s like he did!

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