Harry Bliss Art for Sale at Auction

b. 1964 -

Harry Bliss (born March 9, 1964 in Rochester, New York) is an American cartoonist and illustrator. Bliss has illustrated many books, and produced hundreds of cartoons and 21 covers for The New Yorker. Bliss has a syndicated single-panel comic titled Bliss. Bliss is syndicated through Tribune Content Agency and appears in over 80 newspapers in the United States, Canada and Japan.


Bliss grew up in New York State in an artistic family. There are eleven working visual artists in his immediate and extended family. Bliss studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and illustration at the University of the Arts, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts and, later, at Syracuse University an M.A.


Bliss has been a staff Cartoonist at The New Yorker magazine since 1997. His cartoon work has been published in The New York Times, Time magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer magazine, and other periodicals in the United States. Bliss was a regular cartoonist for Playboy magazine from 1999 to 2016. Bliss worked with cartoon editor Michelle Urry at Playboy. Urry, a strong advocate for cartoonists like Gahan Wilson, Jules Feiffer, and Arnold Roth, was responsible for getting Bliss's cartoons into the hands of Playboy editor Hugh Hefner. Bliss dedicated Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken to Urry after her untimely death in 2006.[citation needed] Bliss's self-titled daily single-panel cartoon appears in major newspapers in the United States, Canada and Japan. Bliss has published over 3,500 cartoons since 2005.

Bliss' first book for children, A Fine, Fine School, written by Sharon Creech, was a New York Times bestseller, as were Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Spider and Diary of a Fly (all written by Doreen Cronin). Beginning in 2019, Amazon Studios began airing a children's series 'Bug Diaries' based on these best-selling titles. Bliss' self-titled cartoon collection Death by Laughter, with an introduction by Christopher Guest, was published in 2008. In 2008 Bliss published Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken (Harper Collins), written by Kate DiCamillo.

In 2008, Bliss, advised by editorial team Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, contributed a popular and critically acclaimed Toon Book, Luke On The Loose, the first book written and illustrated in comic book form by the artist.[citation needed]

Bailey, a picture book for children written and illustrated by Bliss, was published by Scholastic in the Fall of 2011 and followed by Bailey At the Museum in 2012. Bliss went on to illustrate Anna and Solomon published by FSG (written by his mother-in-law, Elaine Snyder).[citation needed] In April 2015 Grandma in Blue With Red Hat, illustrated by Bliss, was published by Abrams. Most recent illustrated children's books include My Favorite Pets: By Gus W. For Miss Smolinski's Class by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf 2016), Grace for Gus (Harper Collins 2018), Good, Rosie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick 2018) and Comics Confidential by Leonard Marcus.

In 2019 Bliss teamed up with entertainer Steve Martin, collaborating on cartoons and comic strips. Celadon Books published their best-selling cartoon collection 'A Weath of Pigeons' in the fall of 2020. Bliss and Martin are currently working on a follow-up collection of cartoons and narrative comic strips.

Bliss has served on the board of directors for The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) in White River Junction, Vermont. In 2016, in conjunction with CCS, Bliss created a new one-month fellowship for cartoonists, the "Cornish CCS Residency Fellowship," in a house in Cornish, New Hampshire, he bought that used to belong to J. D. Salinger.

As an animal rights activist,[citation needed] Bliss has regularly contributed covers for PETA's Animal Times magazine and designed sculptures for PETA that have appeared in major American cities in an ongoing effort to stop animal suffering.[citation needed] McDonald's, Ringling Brothers Circus, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are among the prime targets of Bliss's and PETAs efforts.[citation needed]

Since 2004 Bliss has visited many schools and interacted with thousands of children all over the world teaching comics/drawing/satire. Bliss has travelled to Peru, Bucharest, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Singapore, and Dubai, as well as within the United States. The goal with these school visits is to demonstrate the need for creating thinking through drawing. With accessible language for kids and educators and aided by a fun interactive "scribble" game, Bliss seeks to illuminate perception based on the act of drawing.[citation needed]