Cartoonist Sam Gross, 1933-2023

A Tribute to My Mentor

I put the past two newsletters on hold to pay my respects to the passing of Ed Koren and I was about to do that again, for illustrator/writer Bruce McCall, when the news arrived that a dear friend, Sam Gross, had passed away. Bruce McCall was someone who had a big influence on my work. Sam Gross someone who had a big impact on my life. (I will discuss the work of Bruce McCall in a future post.)

Samuel Gross was the greatest living gag cartoonist. He created around 30,000 cartoons and was published from a surprisingly wide range of venues from The New Yorker to National Lampoon to Good Housekeeping. He has published many cartoon books and was the cartoon editor for National Lampoon, Smoke and Parents Magazine. More importantly, Sam Gross came up with the funniest, most outrageous gag cartoons of our generation, iconic drawings that are beloved worldwide.

We would joke English was not our first language because we both came from the Bronx, he, raised by Jewish immigrants. He started cartooning in earnest in the Army. Sam has immaculately classified his entire career starting with his first gigs for military magazines in book binders which date and number every day he worked––his dad Max was a CPA and Sam was briefly an accountant. He took bookkeeping and dividing up the check very seriously his whole life.

His final years were spent in part solving the problem of how to preserve his body of work, 30,000 gag cartoons, now housed in his art studio. His studio is one difficult long steep block from his apartment in the Upper East Side. “I don’t know when I’m going to die, but I know where—on that &$%# hill.”

Sam’s studio had no TV set, no views nor any distractions. The blinds were draw and the cupboards were empty. It looked as if coffee or tea was the most complicated cooking ever done in the small kitchen, the whole apartment strictly a work-zone. Huge filing cabinets sorted all his cartoon ideas by category; “Dogs,” “Taxes,” “Golf,” “Vampires,” “Mother-In-Laws.” In the main space was a large white drawing table slanted under a glaring fluorescent light. Any other available space in the small apartment was taken by the thousands of cartoon books or black binders filled with his cartoons. Some had to be kept in the bathtub.

We had an ongoing argument in his final years. I would argue he was great and he would disagree. He would insist he was a terrible artist. “I know how to construct a joke…but I can’t draw. Especially horses,” he would say. I would argue I loved his drawing style. He had a breezy timeless line, everything prepping the viewer to laugh before you even read the punchline. I feel this was but one key to his longevity––his artwork does not look dated. He has a sweet spot of readability but not over-wrought realistic illustration. And he draws funny and spontaneous, never feels like he is at odds with his materials.

Birthday card from a couple of years ago.

I feel this officially ends a chapter in my life. Sam actually changed my life more than anyone else aside from my wife. For my birthday, he had invited me to one of the cartoonist lunches at Pergola del Artistes. Wine, tablecloths, opera playing in the background, and sitting with names from humor books I owned, like Leo Cullum and Gahan Wilson. They would not have remembered, but I had been introduced to them when I first met Sam at a Playboy Christmas party. I was invited as a writer, not as a cartoonist. I had zero interest in doing gag cartoons until that New Yorker lunch, when Sam dared me to try my hand at cartooning. With his encouragement and a group of sketches later, I was suddenly sitting opposite Bob Mankoff, the former cartoon editor. I would joke that I totally blamed him for ending my successful illustration career and tricking me into changing vocations into the far less lucrative world of gag cartooning.

(For the record, the freelance illustration field was a sinking ship and I was one of the last rats onboard who didn’t get the memo.).

Our friendship escalated to him being an adviser and father-figure for me, as he guided me into suddenly being a full-time cartoonist. I followed in his footsteps, in spirit only, being, initially, the only other cartoonist refusing to allow my cartoons to be used in the caption contest. The first couple of years I had some success but he pulled me aside and straightened me out that awards weren’t something to aspire to and I stopped entering the cartoon contests. I embraced his goal to just find the best jokes, not accolades (he was pretty dismissive his whole career towards those who attempted to honor him or give him praise. His ego had no need for such vanities.). Yet he could not be more supportive to the gag cartoon community, protecting and fighting for their rights. He was once President of the Cartoonists Guild. He rallied cartoonists to stand up for themselves and to be properly compensated. Anyone who had a chance to meet Sam was encouraged and received a free Master Class in Gag Cartooning. Cartoonist Robert Leighton put it well, “Sam was a champion of the form.” Without Sam in my life the number of cartoons I got published would be around, general estimate, 0. I would not only work with Sam on cartoons. He shared all his experience as an editor of cartoon books with me and he appears on the cover of two of my own cartoon books I edited.

More importantly Sam was a true friend and someone who brought great joy to my life. I haven’t said anything yet on how thoughtful and genuinely sweet Sam Gross could be as that it the most difficult aspect to put into words. But I will share one. In the past year Sam was dealing with a multitude of health challenges. He could not catch a break. Yet as I write this I still cannot imagine someone with so much fight succumbed to anything. He was a rock. When I visited him in rehab he always had questions on his mind he had to get out first: “How are YOU doing? [How am I going?!?!] How is Tammy [my wife] doing? Did you sell anything?”

(The Cartoon Pad podcast, which I co-host with cartoonist Michael Shaw, had Sam on last year and that episode can be heard here.)