Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and illustrator of The Phantom Tollbooth, has died at his home in Richfield Springs, New York, from congestive heart failure. He was 95.
Feiffer, a lifelong New Yorker, got his start as an assistant to Will Eisner in the 1940s whom he helped write and illustrate famed comic strip, “The Spirit.” Nearly ten years later, he helmed his own comic strip, “Feiffer,” with The Village Voice. He published his first collection of satirical cartoons, Sick, Sick, Sick, in 1958, but many know him for his contributions to beloved children’s book, The Phantom Tollbooth.
Written by late author Norton Juster in 1961, the fantasy adventure novel follows a bored young boy named Milo, who mysteriously receives a magic tollbooth that transports him to a world of imagination called The Lands Beyond, where he meets a cast of characters and discovers valuable lessons about knowledge, perspective and curiosity. Feiffer provided the illustrations.
That same year, Munro — an animated short film written by Feiffer based on his Passionella and Other Stories — won an Academy Award. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for his work on political cartoons and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America in 2010.
Feiffer wrote nearly 30 books, plays and films in his lifetime, including children’s book Bark, George, Tony award-nominated play Knock, Knock and his memoir Backing into Forward. Just last year, he published his first graphic novel for young readers, Amazing Grapes.
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In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE ahead of its release, Feiffer described his inspiration as “an internal gut thing.”
“I just wait ’til I’m told what to do by whatever it is in me organically and I just take orders from the voice inside me that says, ‘Let’s get going,’ and then as much as I can, I have as little to do with the creation as possible,” he said. “In a sense, I just follow the orders I’m given, which are some internal gut thing, and when there are problems and hang-ups, I think of that as an opportunity.”
The creative added that “one of the privileges of old age or getting older” is losing the need to control, which he called an illusion.
“… just let things go and see where it takes you,” Feiffer shared. “Seeing where it takes me turns out to be far more interesting and more productive and more creative in a basic way than knowing in advance and making notes and writing down what’s gonna happen next.”
The Carnal Knowledge writer — which starred Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret and Rita Moreno when it premiered in 1971 — credits his creativity, in part, to his firing from The Village Voice, after 42 years.
“[Working there] had become hard work for me, and it took a while for playfulness to take over because I had a family and a living to make,” he explained.
“But things began to fall into place and thank God they did,” the artist continued. “But it turned out to be a door opening instead of a door closing, and doors have kept opening ever since, and I’m grateful for that.”
Feiffer is survived by his wife JZ Holden and three children.
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