| Arnold Roth | |
|---|---|
 Roth at the New York Comic Con in 2016 | |
| Born | February 25, 1929 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
| Area | Cartoonist |
Notable works | Trump The New Yorker TV Guide, Playboy |
| Awards | Reuben Award |
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Arnold Roth (born February 25, 1929) is an American cartoonist and illustrator for advertisements, album covers, books, magazines, and newspapers. Novelist John Updike wrote, "All cartoonists are geniuses, but Arnold Roth is especially so."
Roth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 25, 1929. His family was Jewish and lived in a predominantly Black working-class neighborhood. Growing up, Roth and his older brother frequently visited the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He liked jazz music and learned to play the saxophone.
Roth was introduced to drawing when he was seven years old at Graphic Sketch, a philanthropic endeavor that brought in Philadelphia's best artists to teach children art. He also attended art class at museums that were sponsored by the Works Progress Administration.
Roth graduated from Central High School in 1946 and received a full scholarship to the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. There, he studied illustration. After his first year, he was placed on probation for arriving late to class after nights spent playing in jazz bands; after his second year, he failed his courses and lost his scholarhsip.
Starting in the summer of 1948, Roth worked as a freelance artist. However, he made a living playing in the saxophone and clarinet jazz bands until the mid-1950s. He also worked in factories where he painted toys, lampshades, and decorative pictures.
Roth contracted tuberculosis and went to a sanatorium in Brown Mills, New Jersey for more than a year. When he came home from the sanatorium, he returned to art school. However, he left school for six months to care for his mother, who had cancer. After his mother left him an inheritance of $700, Roth started a freelance business.
Starting in 1951, Rorth began creating cartoons for magazines. In 1952, he made some contributions to TV Guide. In addition to TV Guide, he began regularly contributing to Charm, Holiday, and Glamour. He started selling enough illustrations to make a living as a cartoonist.
Starting in 1957, his cartoons and illustrations were published in the satirical magazines edited by his friend Harvey Kurtzman, including Trump, Humbug, and Help!. He was also a co-editor of Humbug. In the later 1950s, he worked for Playboy. Roth created covers for The New Yorker. His work also appeared in Esquire, Premiere, The Saturday Evening Post, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated. Roth was a regular contributor of cartoon features to Punch.
Playboy published ten multi-page installments of his An Illustrated History of Sex series in the late 1970s. Roth had multi-page features in almost every one of the first 25 issues of National Lampoon. He was a political cartoonist for The Progressive from 1981 to 1987.[citation needed]
Roth drew the comic strip Poor Arnold's Almanac as a Sunday strip for the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate from May 1959 to 1961. The comic strip was revived as a daily panel through the Creators Syndicate from 1989 to 1990. Fantagraphics Books published a collection of this strip in 1998.
Roth wrote and illustrated books for children. He also illustrated book jackets. He designed the jacket for John Updike’s Bech, the Book.
In 1952, Rother met Paul Desmond of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. This relationship led to a sideline of designing record album covers.
Roth received the National Cartoonists Society Advertising and Illustration Award (1982, 1984, 1985); Illustration Award (1976, 1979, 1981); Magazine and Book Illustration Award (1986, 1987, 1988); Special Feature Award (1979); Sports Cartoon Award (1976, 1977); Reuben Award (1983); and their Gold Key Award (their Hall of Fame) in 2000. He served as the organization's president from 1983 to 1985.
On June 25, 2009, Roth was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, which honors artists for their “distinguished achievement in the art of illustration.” Past Society presidents select inductees based on their body of work and the impact on the field of illustration. The Society of Illustrators previously recognized Roth with numerous Silver and Gold Stars.
From January 7 to March 2, 2013, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art hosted a retrospective exhibit of sixty years of Roth's work.
Novelist John Updike wrote, "All cartoonists are geniuses, but Arnold Roth is especially so." Roth's art is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cartoon Art Museum (San Francisco), Philadelphia's Rosenbach Museum & Library, The Billy Ireland Cartoon Research Library and Museum, the Cartoonmuseum Basel, plus many private collections.
Roth married Caroline Wingfield in 1952.
Roth created cover art for jazz and folk albums:
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