Roy Doty
Roy Edward Doty (September 10, 1922 – March 18, 2015) was an American cartoonist, artist and illustrator who made funny drawings for books, packaging, ads, comic strips, TV and campaigns for non-profit groups. He was one of about a dozen people inducted into the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame. His ex-wife, Jean Slaughter Doty, wrote several children's books.
Doty was born in Chicago and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He served in World War II as a U.S. Army cartoonist. He started his career in New York City in 1946 as a freelance cartoonist and worked without an agent for his entire career.
On TV, he hosted The Roy Doty Show on the DuMont network in 1953. From 1969 to 1972 he wrote and drew the syndicated Laugh-In comic strip, based on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. His Wordless Workshop home-improvement feature ran for about 50 years, starting in Popular Science (1953–1989) and later in The Family Handyman. His cartoons appeared in The New York Times, Field & Stream, Popular Science, the Daily Mail (UK), Elle and many other magazines. He also produced newsletters, including a children's one for the American Institute for Cancer Research. He did ad campaigns for Buick, Black & Decker, Ford, Macy's, Minute Maid, Mobil, Texas Instruments and Perrier.
Doty wrote 27 children's books and illustrated more than 170. He won multiple National Cartoonists Society awards, including Reuben Illustrator of the Year (2006) and several Advertising/Illustration/Commercial/Greeting Card awards. In 2011, his work was featured in an exhibition at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio. He stayed active as a freelance illustrator into his nineties and died on March 18, 2015.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 00:00 (CET).