Gardner Rea

Gardner Rea was an American cartoonist best known as one of the original contributing artists to *The New Yorker*, where his pithy, bawdy gags—both captioned and wordless—set a tone for the magazine’s early humor. Born in 1894 in Ironton, Ohio, into an artistic family, he initially aimed to be a painter. At fifteen, he sold his first gag cartoon to *Life* magazine. After attending East High School in Columbus, he studied at Ohio State University, where he co-founded the humor magazine *The Sundial* and befriended James Thurber. Rea also played tennis in college.

Moving to Manhattan in 1914, he worked as a freelance writer and artist for *Life* and *Judge*, and served in the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I. After *The New Yorker* launched in 1925, Rea contributed drawings, covers, and gags; notable artists like Charles Addams and Helen Hokinson later drew cartoons based on his written ideas. In the mid-1930s, he was a regular contributor to the Communist Party’s *New Masses*. His work also appeared in *Playboy*, *The American Legion*, and Walter T. Foster’s “How to Draw” books. Rea died on December 29, 1966.