Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist and The Phantom Tollbooth Illustrator, Dies at 95

Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and illustrator Phantom tollbooth, died at his home in Richfield Springs, New York, of congestive heart failure. He was 95 years old.

Feiffer, a lifelong New Yorker, got his start as an assistant to Will Eisner in the 1940s, helping him write and illustrate the famous comic strip “The Spirit.” Almost ten years later, he directed his own comic, “Feiffer”, with The Village Voice. He published his first collection of satirical cartoons, sick sick sick 1958, but many know him for his contribution to a favorite children’s book, Phantom toll booth.

Written by the late author Norton Juster in 1961, the fantasy adventure novel follows a bored young boy Milo who mysteriously receives a magical tollbooth that transports him to a fantasy world called The Lands Beyond, where he meets a host of characters and discovers valuable lessons about knowledge, perspective and curiosity. Feiffer provided the illustrations.

Norton Juster, author of ‘The’ ‘Phantom Tollbooth’, has died aged 91

Jules Feiffer.

Dick DeMarsico/Underwood Archive/Getty Images

the same year, Munro — an animated short written by Feiffer based on his own Passionella and other stories — won an Oscar. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for his work on political cartoons and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America in 2010.

Feiffer wrote nearly 30 books, plays and films during his lifetime, including children’s books Bark, Georgea Tony Award-nominated play Knock, knock and his memoirs Back to the front. Only last year he published his first graphic novel for young readers, An amazing grape.

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In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE ahead of its release, Feiffer described his inspiration as “an internal thing.”

‘Wonderful Grapes’ by Jules Feiffer.

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“I just wait until what’s organic in me tells me what to do and I just take orders from the voice inside me that says, ‘Let’s go,’ and then as much as I can, I have little to do with creating as much as possible,” he said. “In a sense, I’m just following the orders I’ve been given, which is kind of an internal thing, and when there are problems and setbacks, I see it as an opportunity.”

The creative added that “one of the privileges of age or aging” is the loss of the need for control, which he called an illusion.

“… just let things go and see where they take you,” Feiffer said. “Seeing where it takes me has turned out to be far more interesting, productive and creative in a basic way than knowing ahead of time and making notes and writing down what’s going to happen next.”

Jules Feiffer.

JZ Holden

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The Body knowledge writer — who starred Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret and Rita Moreno when it premiered in 1971 — credits his creativity in part to being fired from The voice of the village, after 42 years.

“[Working there] it became hard work for me and it took a while for the playfulness to take over because I had a family and a living to make,” he explained.

But things started to fall into place and thank God they did, the artist continued. “But it turned out that doors were opening instead of closing, and doors have been opening ever since, and I’m grateful for that.”

Feiffer is survived by his wife, JZ Holden, and three children.

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Source: HIS Education