Gardner Rea

Gardner Rea (1894 – December 29, 1966) was an American cartoonist, and one of the original contributing artists to The New Yorker. Of Rea, one commentator has written: “He was bawdy without being obscene, absurd without being obscure. His captioned and uncaptioned gags were pithy and true.”

A native of Ironton, Ohio, Rea was born into an artistic family and planned to become a painter. When he was fifteen years old, he sold a gag cartoon to Life magazine.

From 1914, he worked as a freelance writer and artist in Manhattan, and contributed to Life and Judge magazines.