'Laugh-In'.
Roy Doty was an American comic artist, who worked as a freelance and independent cartoonist throughout his entire life. He hosted his own drawing instruction TV show, 'The Roy Doty Show' (1953) and was best-known for his long-running educational/instructional comic strip 'Wordless Workshop' (1954-2004), which appeared in the monthly do-it-yourself magazines Popular Mechanics and Family Handyman. Between 1968 and 1972, Doty also drew a newspaper comic based on the TV sketch show 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'. He also excelled in amazingly detailed crowd scenes.
Early life and career
Roy Edward Doty was born in 1922 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design, where he graduated in 1942. During World War II he was drafted and became a radar specialist. For the military newspaper at Robbins Field, Georgia, he drew a gag comic, 'Corporal Qwerty', which army officials liked so much that he was reassigned to become an army cartoonist. 'Corporal Qwerty' ran in additional magazines like Stars and Stripes, Yank, Overseas Woman and Army Talks. It left Doty with a more comfortable and safer job during wartime, but he still traveled along with the troops to Europe. In The London Daily Mail he drew a weekly comic strip, 'A Yank in Paris' and a puzzle page named 'Aha! Puzzle'. He also made illustrations for the debut issue of the women's magazine Elle. Inspired by English and French cartoonists, Doty abandoned brush work and started using a Gillott pen instead. His linework instantly became more delicate and elegant.
'Wordless Workshop'.
Graphic career
After World War II, Doty became a freelance cartoonist in New York. He eventually was able to make a living as a cartoonist. For the next 69 years of his life he never even had an agent. He made illustrated advertisements for companies like Buick, Black & Decker, Coca-Cola, Ford, Macy's, Minute Maid, Mobil Oil, Ovaltine, Perrier and Texas Instruments. His cartoons appeared in Business Week, Elle, Field & Stream, Fortune, the London Daily Mail, Newsweek, The New York Times, Pic, Seventeen and other publications. Doty also made propaganda comics to support politicians Henry Wallace in 1948, and twice Adlai Stevenson, in 1952 and 1956. He illustrated more than 170 children's books, mostly by Judy Blume, but also wrote and illustrated 27 titles of his own. Between 10 May and 4 October 1953 Doty hosted his own children's TV show, 'The Roy Doty Show' (1953) on the DuMont Television Network. The program was entirely devoted to reading illustrated stories and making chalk drawings and cartoons. This would make him one of the earliest comic artists to host a drawing show on television, along with Jack Hamm. Like many early TV shows, no footage has survived. Later in his career Doty illustrated the children's newsletter for the American Institute for Cancer Research.
Wordless Workshop
Doty's signature comic series was 'Wordless Workshop' (1954-2004), which ran in the monthly Popular Mechanics until 1989, after which Family Handyman took it over, publishing it in color. This pantomime family comic depicted a pipe-smoking father trying to make or repair something for his family. In the early years the mother and her kids simply stood by and watched. In later decades they got more involved, subverting gender roles. 'Wordless Workshop' was an instruction manual in comics format. Every episode presented a challenge or an idea, which the family built or fixed in step-by-step drawings. The final page showed the finished result, all told in a formulaic narrative without any dialogue. In that regard 'Wordless Workshop' wasn't a gag comic, more a serious-minded how-to-do-it article. Readers even sent in letters with personal suggestions for projects, which Doty then visualized.
'Laugh-In', 1968.
Laugh-In
Roy Doty was also the artist behind the newspaper comic 'Laugh-In' (1968-1972), based on the popular TV sketch show 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In' (1967-1973). The first episode of 'Laugh-In' appeared in print on 23 September 1968, to coincide with the show's second season. Since the show was so popular, many newspapers distributed the comic. However, Doty didn't caricature the cast members, but just used nameless characters of his own, presumably to avoid being asked to pay a fee. Doty didn't even have contact with the show's hosts, actors, writers or producers. During the first three months he thought up all gags personally, until he got stuck with writer's block. He soon employed gag writers, but nevertheless the 'Laugh-In' celebrity comic was never as popular as the TV show. It did run for five years, until March 1972, but ended before the final season of the TV show. Not caricaturing the show's cast members likely torpedoed the potential for recognizability among readers. Allan Holtz of the website Stripper's Guide suggested another reason why the comic strip didn't catch on: "Laugh-In was a show that revelled in groaningly bad jokes, funny because of the way the cast members delivered the gags. If you were to read a script for a Laugh-In show you wouldn't crack a smile, but once the great cast got hold of the material it turned to gold on the air. Without that great cast delivering the material, the comic strip was doomed."
A Day at the Metrics
Doty also drew the monthly comic series, 'A Day at the Metrics' (1989-1991) for the Marlin Company, which starred a family - the Metrics - trying to deal with the change of the United States to the metric system under U.S. President George Bush Sr.
'Missed the Boat', 1999.
Crowd drawings
An article about Roy Doty wouldn't be complete without addressing his amazing skill in drawing huge crowd scenes for his children's book illustrations and magazine articles. Doty regularly made massive panels - often spread over two pages - of hundreds of creatures together in one spot. Despite the fact that these drawings were often shrunk to size, Doty still put in tremendous effort to make every miniature human or animal in these crowds as intricate and distinctly unique as possible!
Recognition
Doty won several Reuben Awards throughout his career, among them the Advertising and Illustration Award (1967, 1970, 1978, 1989, 1996, 2005), Commercial Award (1989), Greeting Card Award (1994) and Illustrator of the Year Award (2006). He is one of a select few people inducted into the National Cartoonist Society's Hall of Fame.
Final years
Doty remained active as an illustrator well into his nineties. He never considered retirement, because he never felt like he was doing a job. He drew for fun and got paid for it. Nevertheless, his health eventually started to fail and he was admitted to an assisted living facility near his home in Dublin, Ohio. In late 2014 he suffered a stroke. Roy Doty passed away in March 2015, at age 93. Colleagues like Dan Collins and Terry Libenson paid tribute to him. His collection of artwork and cartoons has been donated to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University.
2004 gag comic.