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Mike Twohy, Creator of That's Life

© Susanna McLeod

Drawing his inspirations in a local coffee shop or at home with his bird on his shoulder is the usual for cartoonist Mike Twohy. He is the successful creative force behind countless cartoons appearing in The New Yorker magazine and daily and Sundays through his That's Life comic panel in newspapers.

Mike Twohy was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. He was part of a creative family - his parents were tech company managers in a Silicon Valley company, "before the term 'high tech' came into use. They later managed a fine arts lithography press in San Francisco." The talented family background continued, with a cartooning uncle who also was a writer of television and magazine mysteries, and another uncle and an aunt who were painters.

But wait... the creative spirit doesn't end there. Mike Twohy's wife is a professional musician and artist who "has been a true partner and collaborator in all aspects of my career." He also has kids who are "comics experts and join in our quite intense editing sessions." With a list of gifted people like this, the Twohy family must have colourful palettes flowing through their veins instead of plain old blood cells.

As one of those kids that drew on everything in sight, Mike Twohy has always cartooned. He made his own newspaper as a kid and, in keeping with newspaper styles, he drew full comics pages with cartoons of different varieties. He bravely submitted a comic strip to a syndicate when only 11 years old; he was tickled with the rejection letter addressed to "Mr. Twohy."

The growing cartoonist continued drawing, sketching a sports cartoon for The Palo Alto Times. Later, he took on the unusual summer job of illustrating math workbooks while in college. Twohy studied first at San Jose State University and then progressed to the University of California at Berkeley. He earned an MFA in painting in 1973 with plans to be a fine artist and teacher.

The plans didn't last too long. Since Twohy's artwork was of a pop-art flavour with cartoon aspects, he had no fear in replying to a bulletin board notice of a gag writer looking for a cartoonist to draw out his ideas. *(1) The cartoons were submitted and rejected, but Twohy was hooked. The artist-turned-cartoonist began submitting work to magazines, finding acceptance in TV Guide, Audubon, Esquire and others, including Vegetarian Times. His work has appeared regularly in The New Yorker since 1980.