lit a candle 4h agoMy dad kept a stack of New Yorkers in the bathroom growing up, and Vey's cartoons were the only ones I understood as a kid. Those bulging little eyes made everything look a bit more forgiving somehow. 70 years old. Rest easy, Peter.
Their story
Peter Christopher Vey, known to readers as P. C. Vey, was an American magazine cartoonist whose single-panel gags became a familiar presence in The New Yorker for more than three decades. He died on 17 September 2026 at the age of 70, after being diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 pancreatic…
Peter Christopher Vey, known to readers as P. C. Vey, was an American magazine cartoonist whose single-panel gags became a familiar presence in The New Yorker for more than three decades. He died on 17 September 2026 at the age of 70, after being diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 pancreatic cancer about two months earlier. His wife, Tina Vey, announced his death.
Born on 23 October 1955 and raised in New York City, Vey studied at the School of Visual Arts. He submitted his first cartoon to The New Yorker in 1978 during his senior year and sold gag ideas to the magazine for Charles Addams in the early 1980s, but his first published New Yorker drawing did not appear until 22 November 1993. Regular sales followed after Bob Mankoff became cartoon editor. From then until 2026 he remained a long-time contributor, often drawing poker-faced figures whose captions took an unexpected turn.
Fellow cartoonist Michael Maslin, writing on Inkspill, remembered Vey's washes and captions as carefully balanced, and recalled meeting him as a young Roy Orbison lookalike who brought an edge to the magazine's art department gatherings. Beyond The New Yorker, Vey's cartoons and illustrations appeared in National Lampoon, MAD (including the features Duke Bissell's Tales of Undisputed Interest and Vey To Go), Harvard Business Review, Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Narrative, Prospect, Playboy, AARP Bulletin, The Boston Globe, Funny Times, Saturday Review, Cracked, Omni and others. His first sold gag, to Saturday Review in 1979, led to an invitation to the Wednesday cartoon lunch with Bob Mankoff, Jack Ziegler and Mick Stevens.
Vey's published books include Cats Are People Too, How to Be Your Cat's Best Friend, If Cats Could Talk, and Bad Business: A Rescue Package for the Recession-Weary. He was drawn to office cubicles, business attire and the spatial geometry of rooms, as well as to cats and domestic absurdity. For a time he and Tina lived in Brimfield, Massachusetts, where he walked their cat on a leash; later reports of his death placed him in Amherst, Massachusetts. Colleagues including Harry Bliss praised both his craft and his kindness. His work leaves a precise comic voice that made ordinary settings suddenly strange and funny.
Biography adapted from The Daily Cartoonist (18 Sep 2026); Michael Maslin Inkspill (18 Sep 2026); downthetubes.net In Memoriam; The Cartoon Bank / Inkspill interviews; Wikipedia page P. C. Vey.
In their own words
“Peter was a fantastic Cartoonist and such a kind human being... He was one of the best humorist to ever grace the pages of that magazine, and he will be missed.”
Harry Bliss, comment on The Daily Cartoonist, September 2026
“I kind of think of it as stopping the thought process or creating a mind freeze by taking an inexplicable or unexpected or unanticipated turn.”
P. C. Vey describing his captions to Michael Maslin, Inkspill interview, 2014
Photos
4Peter Christopher (P. C.) Vey
by People Forever
P. C. Vey selfie
by People Forever
P. C. Vey cartoon published in tribute
by People Forever
P. C. Vey New Yorker cartoon example
by People Forever
