Q and A: Jules Feiffer
The cartoonist, illustrator, author and playwright reflects on happy memories and the positive side of failure
- By Jesse Rhodes
- Smithsonian magazine, September 2010, Subscribe
Jules Feiffer has prodded and entertained Americans with his sharp wit for over 50 years by way of cartoons, illustrations, plays and books—including his 2010 memoir, Backing Into Forward. Recently, he spoke at the Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture about photographer Bob Landry’s blithesome portrait of dancer Fred Astaire. Feiffer was interviewed by the magazine’s Jesse Rhodes.
In your memoir you refer to Astaire as your guru. How did that love and reverence for him come about?
I was a child of the Great Depression and the only cheer that came through for many of us in those times was in the form of popular entertainment People were living from hand to mouth and in near poverty situations and while we weren’t suffering or starving or anything like that, it was not a happy time. And the happy times were up on the screen or the happy times were on the radio or the happy times were, in my case, the comic strips and later in comic books. One of the most happy times was those occasions was when my parents would take the three of us to the local movie theater to see Fred and Ginger. That was a memorable occasion because the ease and effortlessness—or apparent effortlessness—of Astaire’s dancing communicated a form of high spirits and optimism and cheer that communicated itself as hope—at least to a substantial part of the population, or at least to me.
Would you say that Fred Astaire is a personal hero of yours?
There were many personal heroes, most of them cartoonists.
Which cartoonists?
As a kid it was EC Segar who wrote and drew Popeye. Milton Caniff who wrote and drew Terry and the Pirates. Al Capp who did Lil Abner and later on Walt Kelly who did Pogo, Crockett Johnson who did Barnaby. These were brilliant, brilliant men who were doing some remarkable work at that time.
What is heroic about Fred Astaire?
I think heroic is the wrong word. Inspiring is a much better word. He was inspirational. Thank god he wasn’t heroic because heroic people usually end up getting into trouble—they send you into war and things like that. There were months and months of hard work that went into making a movie with only one purpose in mind and that was to do something difficult and make it look easy.
The dancer as a figure is an image that pops up in your work time and again. Why does that image appeal to you?
It’s hard to explain. It’s a complicated question and I’m not sure how to answer it simply, but from the time I began my Village Voice cartoon in the 50s, modern dance was taking off and I visited periodically that world and took in dance and had friends who were dancers. I saw the dancer as an ideal subject matter for the kind of comments I wanted to make and embodied in her all the ambivalent ambiguity, doubt, self-doubt, self-reproach and all those other feelings—neurotic and not neurotic, political and non-political. And also because she moved all the time she was leaping and arabesque-ing and doing this and doing that and as opposed to most of my figures who just stood and talked. So it was a lot more fun drawing her than it was my other characters.
Do you see the art of dance and the art of illustration as being related?
I never thought of it. I think everything is interrelated but I never gave it that much thought.
Has your journey through life been anything like Milo’s in The Phantom Tollbooth?
All I did was illustrate the book. I had nothing to do with the writing of it.
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Comments (4)
It was with great pleasure that I read the Q&A with Jules Feiffer. When I was quite young, my aunt gifted me with The Phantom Tollbooth. She had read it first and thought my 3 siblings and I would also enjoy it. I have been enthralled with it ever since. I have presented it to several special people during the past 30-some years and I still re-read it every few years. It never ceases to carry me away, and for that I sincerely thank Mr. Feiffer and Mr. Juster.
Posted by Marty Merz on September 17,2010 | 07:19 PM
Mr. Feiffer, along with a few other distinctly American writers of wit, intelligence, optimistic despair and boundless imagination are the primary reason why this hopelessly middle-aged man is still working away at his dream of one day joining their ranks. Words very much like his here concerning failure are ones I have heard and read many times from many people, but it is particularly inspiring to read them here from him. Thank you for your work so far, Mr. Feiffer, I'm looking forward to what is to come.
Posted by Alan Hutcheson on September 3,2010 | 05:58 PM
Jules Feiffer (and Walt Kelly and a few others) got *me* through an adolescence in a Southern hick town in the late Fifties. There may not have been a Depression, but it was sure depressing. I look forward to his book on Depression humor, in part because he's a terrific writer, and also because I'd like to see his insights into the way humor has largely failed us in the national insanity of the past few decades.
Posted by Mark Morey on September 2,2010 | 10:03 PM
Ever since I came to this country in the late ‘60s, I have loved Mr. Feiffer's work.I got several of his cartoon's paperbacks and still have and treasure them.
Posted by Teresa.I Villamarin on September 1,2010 | 07:26 PM