Bill Lee – RIP
Skip to comments
Cartoonist Bill Lee has passed away.
William Saul (Bill) Lee
November 15, 1938 – November 15, 2023
From the New York Times notice:
He attended the School of Visual Arts, which prepared him for his career as cartoonist and cartoon editor for General Media. The self-described “Investigative Cartoonist” won awards throughout his life, and his work has been featured in such publications as Compute, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Evergreen, National Lampoon, Omni, Penthouse, Playboy, and Spin. He travelled the world and was among the first to enter countries that had been closed to travel by U.S. citizens, including China (1979), Russia (1983), and Cuba (1999).
From the Kenny Funeral Home obituary:
SHARON – Bill (William) Lee, 86, of Sharon, CT and New York, NY died in Manhattan on November 15th, 2023.
He was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1938 to Clara and Arthur Levy.
He drew the best banana in his Brooklyn kindergarten class, and since then, he kept going on to bigger and better things, including one of his first freelance positions: illustrator of the assembly directions for the very first Barbie Dreamhouse (1962).
He attended the School of Visual Arts (1960-1964), which prepared him for his career as a cartoonist and cartoon editor for General Media. The satirist and self-described “Investigative Cartoonist” won many awards throughout his life, including the International Humor Award, and his work has been featured in such publications as Compute, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Evergreen, National Lampoon, Omni, Penthouse, Playboy, and Spin.
Much more about Bill Lee is at Print Magazine where Steven Heller stumbled across some Lee art last year and profiled the cartoonist while searching for Bill. That item sent The Daily Cartoonist in search of Bill, discovering more background but not Lee.
The list of markets in the obituary is only a small portion that published Bill’s cartoons, he even made The New Yorker.
Bill also made a few attempts at syndicating panels to the daily newspapers.
Fogarty in 1975, Bottoms in 1984-85, and LeeScapes in 1992.
From the Bill Lee page at Prabook:
William Saul Lee, American Artist, writer. Avocations: drawing, writing, painting, sculpting. M C. Recipient International Humor award Montreal Expo, 1971, 72, Metro Arts Festival, 1986, 87. Member National television Academy, Writers Guild, Motion Picture Academy, Museum of Broadcasting, National Cartoonist Society, Society Illustrators, American Institute Graphic Arts, Society Publication Designers, Tarreytown Group.
Comments 1
Comments are closed.