It’s hard to find an article or review of Bob Staake that doesn’t include a line about Bob being “one of the most prolific illustrators” of his generation. Which isn’t exactly true. He’s also a cartoonist, children’s book writer and artist, political and commercial artist. In his 50 year career he’s worked with just about every major magazine, newspaper, book publisher, and corporate brand. He’s written or illustrated 80 books, created 23 The New Yorker covers and won major awards like New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award and the National Cartoonists Society Best Newspaper Illustration division award.
Now entering into his retirement era, Bob says he’s easing into it. His normal children’s picture books output is four or five a year. Now he says he’ll only take on one or two. He recently published a best-seller with David Sedaris called “The Selfish Sister.” He’s also working on a book for Viking called “The Sandwich Police,” as well as a two-book contract for Harper Collins. AND he says his agent literary agent is “pitching three new books that I both wrote and illustrated to publishers in the next two weeks.” His version of “easing into retirement” looks a lot like other people’s “most productive time of career.”
A Sample of Bob’s the New Yorker Covers
A Sample of His Children’s Picture Books
Political/Editorial Illustration
Illustration published in The New Yorker
Unpublished editorial art from his Instagam account
Cartoon Style Illustrations for The Washington Post
Here’s a piece from his Instagram that started as a “silly, punny concept sketch” but took on a life of it’s own. From his Instagram account he writes, “i [sic] really had no other choice than to get the thing DONE one way or another.” He later donated it to the Cape Cod Museum of Art and it sold at auction for $1,800.
“Grand Central Crustacean” by Bob Staake
While researching Bob’s work, we found his first contribution to MAD Magazine (April 1996)
The assignment to narrow one’s influences to a mere 10 individuals is difficult. Some cartoonists give us a “baker’s dozen”, and other’s just ignore the limit. Bob, ever the professional of delivering what is requested, provided a crisp list of 10—but also found a way to include more:
“One can easily look all the stages of my 50-year career and immediately sense which cartoonists influenced my art, but let me take a quick moment to list a handful of names NOT usually thought would be inspirational to a cartoonist, but who truly taught me how to SEE a little differently: Gregory Crewdson, Phillipe Starck, Ettore Sottsass, Diane Arbus, Herve Morvan, Saul Bass, Alvin Lustig, Alice and Martin Provensen, Miroslav Sasek, N.C. Wyeth, Wayne Thiebaud, Charles and Ray Eames, David Klein, Henry Dreyfuss, Paul Rand, Alex Steinweiss — and damn this list just gets longer and longer.”
No foul called. Now let’s move on to…
The 10 Artists Who Influenced Bob Staake
Karl Hubenthal
“At the age of 16, Karl was the first cartoonist I ever met. His expert command of a brush dipped in ink remains unparalleled to this day and his understanding of caricatured anatomical movement was other-worldly.”
Cartoon Karl Hubenthal
Paul Conrad
Paul Conrad
“Read any in-depth interview with me and you’ll learn that Con was my mentor. As a teenager, he instilled in me that a cartoon is 10% drawing and 90% idea, and man was he dead-on correct — and I have always tried to carry that edict through my career — from my editorial art, to my children’s books, to my New Yorker covers.”
Miguel Covarrubias
Miguel Covarrubias profile photo
“Forget his ethereal skill at caricature, few can touch his ability with gouache and his acceptance of editorial realities: and if he was assigned to draw a 6’ politico from the FDR administration in a 5”x5” square, he’d simply make it work.”
Al Hirschfeld
Al Hirschfeld
“I wish I had bottled up the times I spent with him in his studio (especially when I showed him how to make a quick and dirty masking tape frisket to paint that lush green background as he painted his famous “Absolut Hirschfeld” vodka ad 😉 EVERY Hirschfeld line is an exquisite dance of ink on paper.”
Pat Oliphant
Pat Oliphant 1965
“In the 1970s, there was simply NO cartoonist I idolized more. How he single-handedly revolutionized the very institution of the modern day editorial cartoon baffles even my fertile imagination. A God. The man is a fucking God. Sadly, I only own one of his originals — but he was gracious enough to send me a dozen of his used pens and brushes for my private collection of famous artist drawing tools.”
A.M. Cassandre in 1955
“Always straddling the creative fence of aesthetic abstraction and client subservience in his imagery, he was without a doubt the most important French advertising poster artist in pre and post-war Europe. Who else would have the balls to “sell” the ‘Restaurez-Vous Wagon-Bar’ with an image of a baguette, bottle of seltzer and glass of red wine against the background of a locomotive wheel?”
Roger Duvoisin
Roger Duvoisin
“I draw nothing like him — never have, never will — but every time I see the carefree, sketchy strokes of his nib, I come to an instant understanding: that I have absolutely NO idea how to draw and I might as well just this whole insane gig up.”
Mary Blair
“I have but three words: ‘Mary FUCKING Blair.’”
J.P. Miller
J.P. Miller
“Utter lyricism of line, form, color and use of white space to die for. (also, see Aurelius Battaglia)”
Charles Addams
Charles Addams in 1947
“There are very few cartoonists on this planet (both past and present) who provide more dark snickers per square inch.”
William Steig
William Steig
“Love his art, but his writing is even better. My fave New Yorker cartoon of all-time shows a sleep-walking woman in a nightgown, frilly hat on head, purse in her hand, hubby sitting in bed who yells to her ‘Macy’s is CLOSED!’”
Edward Gorey
“The first time I saw Ted’s work was as a kid — 17 ethereal illustrations on a Doubleday Book-Of-The-Month club cover of “Hauntings: Tale Of The Supernatural” in my parents’ library. To say I was blown away would be a huge understatement. That book jacket remains framed in my studio — and I have another 6 copies in my personal library.”
Paolo Garretto
Paolo Garretto
“In my opinion, the most economically brilliant caricaturist of all times. You cannot imagine what I have learned by studying Garretto — abstraction, color, form — and most importantly, the demand that the reader themselves brings something to the table when viewing a caricature that is both succinct and nothing more than suggestive. Like Hirschfeld and Covarrubias, Garretto too provides a master class in caricature and is far too ignored (missed completely?) by aficionados of the art form.”
The 3 Artists Influenced Bob Admires
“I always agonize over the whole question of ‘contemporaries,’ and for good reason. I am fortunate to be friends with a wide array of super-talented cartoonists, illustrators and artists whom I admire, and many of them are dear, personal friends, so I hesitate to list three because then I’d easily leave out another couple dozen or so who would easily fit the bill – but I have a solution: Here are three contemporaries I have yet to meet whose work I find inspiring.”
Blexbolex
Blexbolex
“A French illustrator, graphic novelist and designer who creates some very interesting experimental books. They don’t always ‘work’ in the traditional sense of storytelling, but the key word here is ‘experimental.’ We both share an understanding and clear appreciation for old school production techniques, and his illustrations have a delightful silkscreen aesthetic that I find super-interesting.”
Kaz Prapuolenis
Kaz Prapuolenis
“I recently rediscovered his work and had forgotten how consistently good his 4-panel underground comics are. Filled with bizarre and hilariously designed anti-commercial characters and wall to wall dark humor, I can sit down with a collection of his and easily get lost in the nutzoid worlds he creates.”
Tim Biskup
“Straddling the fence between cartooning, graphic design and fine art, you see the retro influences in his work (Jim Flora, Mary Blair, 50s animation, etc,) but his aesthetic is all his, but perhaps the thing that inspires me most about his images is his extremely adventurous color palette. People think color is simple — a little red, throw in some blue, a touch of yellow, maybe a green here or there, but he seems to effortlessly marry color that you would never think would go together and complement one another — and yet they almost always do.
Illustrations © Tim Biskup
Thank you, Bob, for sharing with us your list of your influences and those you admire. You can follow Bob on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or visit his website. You can also listen to Bob’s interview on the The Illustration Department Podcast.