SHORT

BIOGRAPHIES

ISTVAN BANYAI was born in Buda-
pest, Hungary, in 1949, moved to Paris,
Los Angeles, and Manhattan, and now
lives in rural Connecticut. His illustra-
tions appear in The Atlantic, Rolling
Stone, The New York Times, and many
others. Banyai has illustrated record
cover art and has animated short films
for Nickelodeon and MTV Europe. His
1997 children’s book, Zoom, was chosen
as one of the New York Times 10 Best
Children’s Books. He has done ten New
Yorker covers since 1998. For him, doing
covers for The New Yorker is a “masochist
trip and challenge . . . I call it No Yorker.”

HARRY BLISS was born in Roches-
ter, New York, in 1964 and now lives in
Burlington, Vermont. He is a recipient
of many awards for his cartoons and his
children’s books. His single-panel gag
cartoon, “Bliss,” appears daily in over fifty
newspapers. Bliss has done twenty covers
for The New Yorker, the first being “The
New Year” in 1998. For him, working for
The New Yorker is “INSANE!” Its high
rejection rate has toughened his artistic
skin. Still, from day one, Bliss says, “The
New Yorker has inspired the best of my
creative output and it always will . . .
until the day the rejection finally kills me.”

BARRY BLITT was born in Montreal,
schooled in Toronto, and burnished to a
gleaming shine in New York. His work
has appeared in a wide variety of publica-
tions such as Vanity Fair, The New York
Times, Entertainment Weekly, and many
others. He’s the author or illustrator of
many children’s books. Blitt has done
sixty-eight covers for The New Yorker, the
first being “Resolute Smokers,” published
in 1994. For Barry, “Doing covers for
The New Yorker is/was/would be deli-
cious/less filling.”

R. CRUMB was born in Philadelphia
in 1943 and currently lives in the south
of France. He is best known for his
creation of Zap Comix and Weirdo, as
well as his comic book characters Fritz
the Cat and Mr. Natural. In 2009, he
published a comic book rendition of the
Book of Genesis. He’s done two covers
for The New Yorker, the first in 1994. He
is currently serializing excerpts from his
diary in Mineshaft magazine. For Crumb,
working for The New Yorker “evokes a
complicated mix of conflicting emo-
tions.”

JOHN CUNEO was born in West-
field, New Jersey, in 1957 and cur-
rently lives in Woodstock, New York.
His drawings have appeared in many
publications, including The Atlantic,
Esquire, Vanity Fair, and others. He is the
recipient of gold and silver medals from
the New York and the San Francisco
Society of Illustrators. Cuneo has done
two covers for The New Yorker, the first
one being “Flu Season” in 2009. For
Cuneo, doing covers for The New Yorker
“means you get seven full days to think
about why the damn sketch was better
than the final.”

PETER DE SÈVE was born in
Queens, New York, in 1958 and current-
ly lives in Brooklyn. His work is featured
in magazines, books, print and television
advertising, as well as animated films,
such as Mulan, A Bug’s Life, and Finding
Nemo. He designed the characters for
the three blockbuster Ice Age movies.
He also recently collaborated on his first
children’s book, The Duchess of Whimsy,
with his wife, Randall. De Sève has done
thirty-two covers for The New Yorker,
the first in 1993. For him, doing covers
for The New Yorker “would be great if it
happened more often.”

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