RETROSPECTIVE
1939 - 2022
Bill Woodman was born in Bangor, Maine, in 1939. He joined the US Navy in 1954, serving on the USS Timmerman, and later in West Germany. Upon his discharge in 1957, Woodman took the next bus to New York City, knowing that was the place to start his cartooning career.
In 1962, Woodman sold his first cartoon to the Saturday Review. He worked a variety of day jobs until making his first sale to the New Yorker in 1975, beginning a working relationship that spanned four decades. In addition to the New Yorker, Woodman’s work appeared in Playboy, National Lampoon, Audubon, The New York Times, Gourmet magazine, and Barron’s, among others. Woodman published a collection of his own work, Fish and Moose News, as well as a children’s book, Whose Birthday Is It Anyway? He also illustrated the work of others, notably Carl Ewald and Eva Le Gallienne's, The Spider and Other Stories, and Beverly and Marigold, by Val Coleman.
In 2000, Woodman retired to Maine where he continued making cartoons, but mainly practiced his true love, plein air (outdoor) painting. Woodman passed away in 2022
Bill Woodman is represented by The Gallery at Somes Sound on Mount Desert Island, Maine.