Michael Witte (born 1944) is an American-born illustrator and cartoonist.
Witte has been a regular contributor to ''TIME'', ''Harper’s'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Fortune'', ''The New York Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''. His art has appeared on the covers of ''The New Yorker'', ''Atlantic Monthly'', ''Newsweek'', ''Forbes'' and the ''Princeton Alumni Weekly'' as well as "The New Yorker Book of" cartoon series. He wrote and illustrated the best-selling ''Book of Terns'' (1978), ''Claus!'' (1982) and also co-wrote ''Otter Nonsense'' (1994) with best-selling children's book author
Norton Juster
Norton Juster (June 2, 1929 – March 8, 2021) was an American academic, architect, and writer. He was best known as an author of children's books, notably for ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' and ''The Dot and the Line''.
Early life
Juster was born in ...
.
From 1974 to 1976, Witte collaborated with Mets/Phillies pitching great
Tug McGraw
Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr. (August 30, 1944 – January 5, 2004) was an American professional baseball relief pitcher and long-time Major League Baseball (MLB) player, often remembered for coining the phrase "Ya Gotta Believe", which became th ...
on a nationally syndicated, sports-themed comic strip ''
Scroogie''. The strips were collected in ''Scroogie'' (1976) and ''Hello There, Ball!'' (1977). A lifelong baseball fan, Witte later contributed on-the-air cartoon commentary during the 2003 Yankees-Marlins World Series. Since 2005, he has worked as a pitching and hitting mechanics consultant to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Awards
He is a recipient of the Page One Award from
The Newspaper Guild
The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practice ...
and consecutive National Headliner awards as America's best illustrator (1993 & 1994). He has received numerous Art Direction Awards from
The Society of Illustrators.
Personal
Michael Witte was born in rural St. Louis and spent his childhood working in his parents' country store. While a scholarship student at Princeton University, he served as art editor to the campus humor periodical, ''
Tiger Magazine
''Princeton Tiger'' or ''Tiger Magazine'' is the second oldest college humor magazine in the United States, published by Princeton University undergraduates since 1882. It is best known for giving the start to literary and artistic talent as wid ...
''. He now resides in
South Nyack, New York with his wife, Sally. Together they have three sons, Griff, Spencer and Drew.
References
External links
Official website of Michael Witte
Living people
American cartoonists
1944 births
People from South Nyack, New York
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