Cartoonist Joe Ruisi has passed away.
Joseph A. (Joe) Ruisi
November 4, 1936 – March 10, 2019
Joe was a magazine, gag, and editorial cartoonist; a children’s book and greeting card illustrator.
Life began for Joe Ruisi in beautiful downtown Buffalo, New York. At about the age of three, little Joey began to exhibit anomalous tendencies. His Italian immigrant family, while alarmed and concerned about their little aberration, were often amused by his cartooning and seldom punished him for it.
Although known as an artist throughout elementary and high school, it was during his late twenties (as an art major at the University of Hartford) that Joe’s paintings proved once and for all that he was born to be a cartoonist.
Even work experiences in an exhibit company, an ad agency, and commercial art studios could not snuff out Joe’s burning desire to produce cartoons.
Joe has, since October 2002, become the editorial cartoonist for The Myrtle Beach Herald, a local weekly newspaper in coastal South Carolina.
Joe has also done editorial cartoons for Waccamaw Publishers and Carolinaweekly.com.
His work has been published in the USA, Canada, and the UK in many publications such as the Saturday Evening Post, Sun, Country Woman, Boy’s Life, Stitches, Family Digest, and The Christian Voice, and many others. Joe’s color illustrations are featured in a children’s books series named, Larkins’ Little Readers and Mister Tubby, the adventures of a real, live clown who lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.
More Joe at The-Cartoonist.com
and Joe’s old Lifetown Cartoons site is available via The Wayback Machine.
Joe teamed up as the artist with creator Davis Mauldin for the ilovedixie.com comic strip.
Sad news indeed to hear of Joe’s passing. He was always involved with others and took time to mentor aspiring cartoonists. I was involved with Joe in cartoon groups and chat rooms over many years and respected and admired his work with others. He will be greatly missed in the cartoonist community.