Robert Leighton (cartoonist)

Since 2002, Leighton has been a regular contributor of single-panel cartoons to The New Yorker.[1] He has also created comic strips and humorous illustrated puzzles. In 2006, with his partners at Puzzability, Leighton wrote "The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games" which used approximately 700 New Yorker cartoons and their captions as the basis for a variety of puzzle types.[2]

Work that Leighton both wrote and drew has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal,[3] Games,[4] Nickelodeon Magazine,[5] Slate,[6] and SpongeBob Comics.[7]

While he was at Northwestern University, Leighton wrote and drew a comic strip called "Banderooge".[8] He also cofounded and edited the college humor magazine "Rubber Teeth."[9]

After Leighton graduated from college, he was interested in the possibility of finding employment as both a humor writer and illustrator, and so he went to work as an editor for Games magazine, which hired him on the basis of his humor writing; at that time he had no experience writing puzzles.[10] After leaving Games magazine, he and Mike Shenk and Amy Goldstein, who also had both worked at Games, went on to form a puzzle company called Puzzability.[11] As one of the three principals of Puzzability, Leighton has co-authored a number of puzzle books ranging from crosswords to puzzles for children:

• 2005, Celebrity Crosswords, by Puzzability[12]
• 2006, The Brainiest Insaniest Ultimate Puzzle Book!, by Amy Goldstein, Robert Leighton and Mike Shenk[13]
• 2006, The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games by Puzzability[14] The book won the Parents Choice Gold Award, 2010.[15]
• 2010, Bananagrams! For Kids, by Puzzability[16]
• 2019, Puzzlelopedia by Robert Leighton with Amy Goldstein and Mike Shenk. Illustrated by Robert Leighton.

Leighton's first published work appeared in Bananas magazine. This was edited by R. L. Stine, who went on to create the Goosebumps series of children's books. While at Northwestern University, Leighton cofounded and edited the college humor magazine "Rubber Teeth."

Leighton was a contributor of cartoons, puzzles, and other humorous articles to Nickelodeon Magazine[5] for its entire run (1993–2009) as well as a contributing writer and editor at National Lampoon magazine in the early 90s.[18]

Leighton has illustrated a number of books, including "What's Going on Down There?”, a book about puberty,[19] and "Poop Happened! A History of the World From the Bottom Up", a book about human sanitation throughout history.[20]

In the 1970s, Leighton made an appearance on the television program To Tell the Truth, as the central character (himself, the real "Robert Leighton"). He and the two impostors stumped the panel of judges and shared the $500 prize money.[1]

• Official Robert Leighton website
• The Puzzability website
• Leighton's New Yorker cartoons at the Conde Nast Store
• Website for the Northwestern University comic strip "Banderooge"