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Robert Leighton is an American
cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
, writer, artist,
puzzle A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...
writer, illustrator, and humorist. He lives and works in New York City. His cartoons have appeared regularly in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' and other periodicals. In 1996, with Mike Shenk and Amy Goldstein, Leighton co-founded Puzzability, a puzzle-writing company. As part of Puzzability, Leighton has coauthored many books of puzzles, as well as puzzle-oriented
Op-Ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
pieces for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Asked why he creates cartoons and puzzles, two apparently different kinds of work, Leighton replied: "I think a puzzle is like a cartoon, like a joke, because the puzzle is the setup and the solution is the punch line. A good puzzle keeps you in suspense while you’re working on it, like a cartoon. And the ‘aha!’ is the equivalent of the laugh when a joke is resolved.”Northwestern (alumni magazine), A Puzzling Career by Cate Plys, 200

accessed June 13, 2013


Cartooning

Since 2002, Leighton has been a regular contributor of single-panel cartoons to ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. He has also created comic strips and humorous illustrated puzzles. In 2006, with his partners at Puzzability, Leighton wrote "The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games" which used approximately 700 New Yorker cartoons and their captions as the basis for a variety of puzzle types. Work that Leighton both wrote and drew has also appeared in the ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''Games'', ''
Nickelodeon Magazine ''Nickelodeon Magazine'' is a defunct American children's magazine inspired by the children's television network Nickelodeon. Its first incarnation appeared in 1990 and was distributed at participating Pizza Hut restaurants; the version of the ma ...
'',Nickelodeon Magazine, page 33, section "Credits", listed under "Illustration 24" ''Slate'', and ''
SpongeBob Comics ''SpongeBob Comics'' was a comic book series based on the animated TV show ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', published by United Plankton Pictures and distributed by Bongo Comics. It was initially published every two months in the United States beginnin ...
''. While he was at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
, Leighton wrote and drew a comic strip called "Banderooge". He also cofounded and edited the college humor magazine "Rubber Teeth."


Puzzle writing

After Leighton graduated from college, he was interested in the possibility of finding employment as both a humor writer and illustrator, and so he went to work as an editor for ''Games'' magazine, which hired him on the basis of his humor writing; at that time he had no experience writing puzzles. After leaving Games magazine, he and Mike Shenk and Amy Goldstein, who also had both worked at Games, went on to form a puzzle company called Puzzability. As one of the three principals of Puzzability, Leighton has co-authored a number of puzzle books ranging from
crossword A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answ ...
s to puzzles for children: * 2005, ''Celebrity Crosswords'', by Puzzability * 2006, ''The Brainiest Insaniest Ultimate Puzzle Book!'', by Amy Goldstein, Robert Leighton and Mike Shenk * 2006, ''The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games'' by Puzzability The book won the Parents Choice Gold Award, 2010. * 2010, ''Bananagrams! For Kids'', by Puzzability * 2019, ''Puzzlelopedia'' by Robert Leighton with Amy Goldstein and Mike Shenk. Illustrated by Robert Leighton.


Puzzle-based Alternate Reality Game

In May 2014, Puzzability was hired by Campbell Ewald advertising agency to create an ARG (
Alternate Reality Game An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by inten ...
) for the U.S. Navy’s cryptology division. The resulting puzzle-based game, ''Project Architeuthis'', won 11 advertising awards and resulted in a sequel, ''Operation Sleeper Shark''. Both games played out in real time on Facebook.


Humor writing

Leighton's first published work appeared in ''Bananas'' magazine. This was edited by
R. L. Stine Robert Lawrence Stine (; born October 8, 1943), sometimes known as Jovial Bob Stine and Eric Affabee, is an American novelist, short story writer, television producer, screenwriter, and executive editor. Stine has been referred to as the "St ...
, who went on to create the ''
Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror fiction novels by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing. The protagonists in these stories are tweens or young teens who find themselves in scary circumstances usually i ...
'' series of children's books. While at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
, Leighton cofounded and edited the college humor magazine "Rubber Teeth." Leighton was a contributor of cartoons, puzzles, and other humorous articles to Nickelodeon Magazine for its entire run (1993–2009) as well as a contributing writer and editor at ''National Lampoon'' magazine in the early 90s.


Comedy writing

Leighton did some TV comedy writing, including a CBS sitcom which was cancelled before his episode aired. He also wrote individual episodes for live action and animated cable shows including ''
Bear in the Big Blue House ''Bear in the Big Blue House'' is an American children's television series created by Mitchell Kriegman and produced by Jim Henson Television for Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney preschool television block. Debuting on October 20, 1997, it aire ...
'', Cartoon Network's ''
Ed, Edd n Eddy '' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' is a Canadian animated comedy television series created by Danny Antonucci for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series revolves around three friends named Ed, Edd (called "Double D" ...
'' and Nickelodeon's ''
The Off-Beats ''The Off-Beats'' is an American animated series that was created by Mo Willems. The first episodes were produced as standalone short animated films for Nickelodeon; but after the series was nominated for a CableACE Award, more segments were produ ...
'' with creator Mo Willems.


Illustrating

Leighton has illustrated a number of books, including "What's Going on Down There?”, a book about puberty, and "Poop Happened! A History of the World From the Bottom Up", a book about human sanitation throughout history.
"Poop Happened! A History of the World From the Bottom Up", Amazon.com, Accessed August 27, 2013


References


External links


Official Robert Leighton website





Website for the Northwestern University comic strip "Banderooge"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leighton, Robert Puzzle designers American cartoonists The New Yorker cartoonists American humorists Living people 1960 births