☛ The New Yorker “‘A writer?’ she gasped” by Charles Barsotti, June 27, 1994, p. 133. © Condé Nast.

This cartoon appeared in the 1994 special Fiction issue of The New Yorker. The cartoonist and illustrator Charles Barsotti, who was born on 1933, died on June 16, 2014:

Barsotti, longtime Kansas Citian and cartoonist for The New Yorker for more than four decades, died late Monday at age 80. Barsotti was called a philosopher and “a genius of humor,” and his work drew comparisons to the cartoons of James Thurber. […]

The New Yorker published more than 1,300 Barsotti cartoons. He created many thousands more that appeared widely, including in The Atlantic, USA Today, Texas Monthly and Playboy, and on the op-ed pages of The New York Times and The Kansas City Star.

(The Kansas City Star: “Beloved New Yorker cartoonist Charles Barsotti dies in Kansas City” by Edward M. Eveld, June 17, 2014).

In 1998, Charles Barsotti was awarded the “Gag Cartoon Award” by the National Cartoonist Society (see his biography at the NCS). As a tribute to him, Robert Mankoff shares many of Barsotti’s best cartoons at his New Yorker blog: “Thank You, Charlie Barsotti” (June 17, 2014).

One can visit Charles Barsotti official website to discover more about his work, including the books he has published (it seems the website hasn’t been updated since 2007).

[UPDATE–June 21, 2014] Over at The Comic Journal, Richard Gehr has written a very informative piece on Barsotti’s life and career: “Charles Barsotti 1933-2014” (June 20, 2014).