One of the country's leading cartoonists, Mort Gerberg began trying out "what-ifs" as an upper freshman at Baruch College when he sold Ralph Ginzburg, editor in chief of The Ticker, a cartoon panel called "City Snickers," which soon became one of the newspaper’s most popular features.
After the army, Mort began his freelance career, selling cartoons to all the major magazines, including Look; The Saturday Evening Post; Harper’s; The Saturday Review; Publisher’s Weekly, where he created its only-ever cartoon panel; Playboy; and The New Yorker, where he has achieved his chief recognition.
His ability to draw quickly led him to develop cartoon formats
for television, principally with NBC News. He contributed to
Channel 4's election coverage as its first-ever cartoonist-commentator
and appeared with Barbara Walters on the Today show and on
NBC Network's 1973 presidential inauguration coverage with
Edwin Newman. He broadened his cartoon-performances to team
with Shari Lewis in her home
video, Lamb Chop in the Land
of No Manners, and was a
member of an off-Broadway
musical-improvisation theatre
group, instant-sketching locations
suggested by audiences.
Mort's television work also included magazine shows, such as Grandstand and Woman for WCBS-TV, AM New York for WABC-TV, and The 51st State for PBS, where he wrote and drew animated fables he designed specifically for a low budget.
One of the first cartoonists online, Mort created interactive content for ABC-TV’s debut programming on AOL.
Mort has also written, drawn, and edited a total of 39 books, for both adults and children, including Cartooning: The Art and the Business and Joy in Mudville: The Big Book of Baseball Humor. His latest book, Last Laughs: Cartoons About Aging, Retirement . . . and the Great Beyond, is due to be published by Scribner next October, which describes it as a "must-have" for "anyone with a slightly morbid sense of humor."
—MICHAEL GILLESPIE
Cartoon reprinted by permission of Mort Gerberg and The New Yorker
