Jule Feiffer was born on January 26 1929 in The Bronx in New York City. He took an interest in art when very young, starting to draw when he was only three years old. He also developed an interest in comic strips while he was very young, and he enjoyed such comic strips as Wash Tubs, Our Boarding House, and Flash Gordon. He developed an interest in comic books even before the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics no. 1 (June 1938).
His mother was a fashion designer who made water colour drawings of her designs. She encouraged young Jules Feiffer's interest in art. She gave him a drawing table when he was 13. She also helped him get enrolled in Art Students League of New York. Jules Feiffer graduated from James Monroe High School when he was only 16.
It was following his graduation from high school that Jules Feiffer went to the office of cartoon Will Eisner and asked him for a job. While Will Eisner did not think much of young Mr. Feiffer's artistic ability, he was impressed by the teenager's passion for comics. He then gave Jules Feiffer a job in his studio, doing such things as colouring, erasing, cleaning up, and so on. Over time Jules Feiffer would be given more responsibilities on Will Eisner's comic strip The Spirit. even assisting on stories and drawing. Eventually Will Eisner let Jules Feiffer do his own comic strip that appeared in the back of the Spirit section in newspapers, Clifford, a humour strip centered on a kid by that name.
In 1951 Jules Feiffer was drafted into the United States Army, where he served in the Signal Corps Publication Agency where he worked on training manuals and so on. He was honorably discharged after serving in the Army for two years. It was in 1956 that Jules Feiffer became a staff cartoonist at the Village Voice. He would continue to work for the Voice until 1996 when new owners took over the paper.
While Jules Feiffer was not paid for his work at the Village Voice, he would find an income through his friend Gene Deitch. Gene Deitch had become the creative director at Terrytoons and recruited Mr. Feiffer as one the artists there. While he would not remain with Terrytoons long, he would have one major success in animation. Jules Feiffer wrote the short "Munro," which Gene Deitch directed. It won the 1961 Oscar for Best Animated Film.
As time passed, Jules Feiffer's cartoons would appear in places other than the Village Voice, including Pageant. Playboy, and other publications. Over the years he would also publish several books. Sick, Sick, Sick: A Guide to Non-Confident Living, his first book, was published in 1956. It was a collection of cartoons from 1950 to 1956. Over the years several other collections fo cartoons would be published, including More Sick, Sick, Sick; The Explainers; Hole Me!, and so on. Jules Feiffer illustrated Norton Juster's 1961 children's fantasy novel The Phantom Tollbooth. Jules Feiffer also wrote the novels Harry, the Rat with Women (1963) and Ackroyd (1977). He wrote several plays, including Little Murders (1967), Feiffer's People (1969), and Knock Knock (1976), among others.
Among Jules Feiffer's best known books was the non-fiction book The Great Comic Book Heroes. Published in 1965, it is regarded as the first history of superheroes. Starting with Tantrum in 1979, he wrote several graphic novels. He also wrote several children's books.
Jules Feiffer wrote the screenplay for the adaptation of his play Little Murders (1971) and the movie Carnal Knowledge (1971) and made contributions to the film adaptation of Oh! Calcutta! (1972). He went onto write the screenplays for Popeye (1980) and I Want to Go Home (1989). He also worked in television, writing episodes of such shows as Quest, Comedy Zone, Faerie Tale Theatre, and Great Performances. He was one of the writers on the one hour TV series VD Blues, about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, that aired on PBS in 1972.
Although often described as a cartoonist and author, Jules Feiffer had mastered multiple media He had worked in comic strips, animation. non-fiction, plays, movies, novels, graphic novels, and children's books. Throughout all these media Jules Feiffer tackled institutions, society, and life in general with a sardonic wit. If ever there was an artist who could probe the American psyche with intelligence and even a bit of whimsy, it was Jules Feiffer. He influenced such cartoonists as Paul Karasik, Art Spiegelman, Gary Trudeau, and others. His book The Great Comic Book Heroes was not only the first history of comic book superheroes, but it was also one of the first times that the comic book was treated seriously as an art form. The book would have a lasting influence on comic book writers and comic book historians. Few artists would have the sort of lasting impact that Jules Feiffer had.
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