Will’s Cartoons

Can one moment illuminate a whole life?

REMEMBERING PAUL MORPHY (The Boston Globe, 8/16/26)

REMEMBERING MILES DAVIS (The Boston Globe, 7/26/26)

A comic strip from 'Miles: The Autobiography' showing a young boy playing a trumpet in the woods, practicing bird calls, then growing up to become a jazz musician, and later a dentist, with scenes in a dental office, and a bird on a branch.

REMEMBERING ANTONI GAUDI (The Boston Globe, 6/14/26)

Illustration of Antoní Gaudí standing in front of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, with their main towers and intricate architecture visible. Behind him is a background of a blue sky and a flat landscape.

REMEMBERING MARIE WINTELER (The Boston Globe, 5/3/26)

A three-panel comic strip depicting a woman in a pink dress sitting at a piano, a woman walking through a mountain landscape carrying a laundry basket, and a woman standing in a doorway looking out. The comic includes captions about Marie Winteler, a high school student, and her love story.

REMEMBERING JOHN MORIARTY (The Boston Globe, 3/22/26)

REMEMBERING JANE GOODALL (The Boston Globe, 2/8/26)

A colorful illustrated comic strip depicting Jane Goodall, a primatologist, surrounded by her chimpanzees and forest scenes. The strip includes panels describing her while highlighting her rejection of traditional numbering of her subjects, instead giving them names and trusting the first chimp she encountered, David Greybeard.

REMEMBERING JANE AUSTEN (The Boston Globe, 12/7/25)

An illustration of a woman sitting at her writing desk, with a view outside the window of a small town with houses and green landscape, while she writes with a quill pen.

REMEMBERING REGINA AND BOBBY (The Boston Globe, 11/15/25)

A comic strip depicting a story set in 1950 Brooklyn apartment. It shows a mother and her son, Bobby, who is obsessed with chess. Scenes include a Brooklyn street, a mom scolding Bobby, Bobby contemplating chess moves, and him soaking in a bathtub while the mother looks on. The story involves a chess contest and a solution to keep Bobby from playing while submerged.

REMEMBERING DIEGO RIVERA (The Boston Globe, 9/7/25)

Collage of paintings and drawings with poetic questions and statements about famous figures and scenes, including an artist painting, a man at a sculpture, a person drinking hot chocolate, a person sprinkling salt, a hummingbird, a couple kissing, and a person contemplating at a table.

REMEMBERING ADA LOVELACE (The Boston Globe, 6/15/25)

8 panel cartoon about Ada Lovelace, the poetry-loving daughter of Lord Byron

REMEMBERING JOSEPHINE BAKER (The Boston Globe, 4/13/25)

A comic strip depicting a woman reading a newspaper in her hospital bed, discovering her obituary written by Josephine Baker, which laments her passing but omits her work for the French Resistance. The comic shows her in her hospital room, military officers, a line of people with luggage and a dog, and a scene where she is performing on stage, all relating to her secret activities and her public persona.

REMEMBERING CHARLES SCHULZ (The Boston Globe, 3/2/25)

Comic strip depicting Charles Schulz in a classroom setting. Young Schulz is distracted by a chalkboard during math class. As an adult, he prefers his studio where he creates 'Peanuts.' Once, he draws Snoopy on a chalkboard for a kindergarten class, but a student critiques his drawing.

REMEMBERING LI QINGZHAO (The Boston Globe, 1/19/25)

A CARTOON about the 12-century chinese poet Li Qingzhao.

REMEMBERING HENRI MATISSE (The Boston Globe, 12/08/24)

A cartoon about Henri Matisse who, while recovering from stomach cancer later in life, collected a large aviary of birds who kept him company.

REMEMBERING DOROTHEA LANGE (The Boston Globe, 8/25/24)

A 12 panel cartoon about Dorothea Lange's photograph, Migrant Mother, taken during the Great Depression. The panels are drawn to resemble strips of film from a camera.

REMEMBERING FRANÇOIS-MARIE AROUET (The Boston Globe, 7/14/24)

Cartoon about Voltaire, who wrote his break-out play in his head while serving a sentence in the Bastille.

REMEMBERING JAMES JOYCE (The Boston Globe, 6/16/24)

REMEMBERING DOROTHEA VON ERTMANN (The Boston Globe, 5/5/24)

Illustration depicting the story of pianist Dorothea von Ertmann grieving the loss of her son and visiting her piano teacher. The panels show her being unable to cry, attending the funeral, and visiting the teacher in Vienna. He is described as disheveled with ink-stained hands. He plays the piano for her, evoking tears as she describes the music as angelic.
A cartoon of WB Yeats, a member of the Eugenics society, and a line of contemporary people in line to visit his grave, which, it turns out, most likely contains his bones mixed with others—a eugenicists nightmare!

REMEMBERING W. B. YEATS (THE BOSTON GLOBE, 3/17/24)

A cartoon about Walter Benjamin's flight from the Nazis.

REMEMBERING WALTER BENJAMIN (The Boston Globe, 12/31/23)

THEY DON’T LIKE EMPTINESS (POST ROAD MAGAZINE, 12/4/23)

Two panel cartoon about Agnes Martin.

REMEMBERING JAMES MERRILL (The Boston Globe, 10/29/23)

8 panel cartoon about James Merrill, a poet who wrote using a ouija board
A single panel cartoon of Ramanujan, an Indian math prodigy,

REMEMBERING SRINAVASA RAMANUJAN (The Boston Globe, 10/8/23)

9 panel cartoon of Bess Houdini

REMEMBERING BESS (The Boston Globe, 9/10/23)

REMEMBERING SINÉAD O’CONNOR (The Boston Globe, 8/13/23)

Cartoon honoring Sinead O'Connor.

REMEMBERING ROBERT JOHNSON (The Boston Globe, 7/30/23)

A seven panel cartoon about bluesman Robert Johnson.

REMEMBERING MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI (The Boston Globe, 7/9/23)

4 panel comic about Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel
A cartoon about Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," and the disturbing letters from readers the tale illicited.

REMEMBERING SHIRLEY JACKSON (The Boston Globe, 6/18/23)

“REMEMBERING EMILY DICKINSON” (The Boston Globe, 5/28/23)

An eight panel cartoon about Emily Dickinson.

“REMEMBERING KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI” (The Boston Globe, 5/7/23)

A ten panel cartoon about Hokusai, Japanese painter and printmaker, who survived a devastating fire and kept painting into his 80s.

“REMEMBERING GERTRUDE STEIN” (The Boston Globe, 4/16/23)

A 12 panel comic about Gertrude Stein.

“REMEMBERING JORGE LUIS BORGES” (The Boston Globe, 3/26/23)

A ten panel cartoon about Jorge Luis Borges.

“REMEMBERING FLANNERY O’CONNOR” (The Boston Globe, 3/5/23)

An 11 panel cartoon about Flannery O'Connor's trip to Lourdes.
A 10 panel cartoon about the prolific Black painter Clementine Hunter.

“REMEMBERING CLEMENTINE HUNTER” (The Boston Globe, 1/22/23)

“REMEMBERING PAUL WITTGENSTEIN” (The Boston Globe, 11/20/22)

“An illustrated peek inside the Boston Public Library’s

Special Collections” -The Boston Globe, 9/18/22

An illustrated peek inside the Boston Public Library's recently renovated Special Collections

“REMEMBERING CLAUDE MONET” (The Boston Globe, 8/21/22)

A cartoon about Claude Monet trying to complete a series of canvases centering on a winter tree after being stuck inside for so long due to rain that when the weather clears, the tree is green with spring buds.

“REMEMBERING RALPH ELLISON” (The Boston Globe, 7/10/22)

“REMEMBERING JUNKO TABEI” (The Boston Globe, 5/29/22)

“REMEMBERING ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY” (The Boston Globe, 4/17/22)

“REMEMBERING FRIDA KAHLO” (The Boston Globe, 2/20/22)

“REMEMBERING NICCOLÒ PAGANINI” (The Boston Globe, 1/23/22)

“REMEMBERING MERRILL MOORE” (The Boston Globe, 1/2/22)

Comic strip about a Boston psychiatrist and poet, Merrill Moore, detailing his obsession with writing sonnets during various daily activities. It mentions storing poems in filing cabinets, his prolific output of 100,000 sonnets, and his forgotten legacy. It also references another poet, Robert Lowell, whom Moore advised to pursue poetry.