Paul Noth is a Milwaukee native who has published over 400 cartoons in The New Yorker. He won the Thurber Prize for American Humor in Caroon Art in 2025, and he’s recently been named Cartoonist Laureate of Wisconsin by the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) in West Bend.
Noth will serve three years in the role, with an exhibition of his work set for early 2027 and a book coming out in October. Noth will act as an ambassador for Wisconsin’s cartoons and comics legacy while also supporting new and upcoming artists with student workshops, a Wisconsin cartoonists’ symposium and more.
“I'm going to try and promote and celebrate the art form for the next three years and, hopefully, establish what it means to be cartoonist laureate,” Noth says. “I think it's a great thing to have out there to show that this art form really is celebrated and honored in this state.”
MOWA’s Cartoonist Laureate Program
Noth's new role coincides with his recent return to Milwaukee, after living in Brooklyn, N.Y., for 20 years. Given Wisconsin’s long list of acclaimed cartoonists — from Denis Kitchen to Lynda Berry to Asher Perlman — he says he was humbled to be chosen for the role.
“When Laurie [Winters] began telling me they were creating this position ... I immediately thought of several names of who they would pick, and mine was not among them,” he says. “And so, it kind of blew me away a little bit to be chosen for this.”
Laurie Winters is MOWA’s executive director. She says the Cartoonist Laureate program came out of MOWA’s 2020 Wisconsin Funnies exhibit and companion book, which highlighted Wisconsin’s comics scene going back to the 1960s. It’s all part of an effort to show that cartoons deserve to be taken seriously as a powerful medium for self-expression and social commentary.
“They connect to us as human beings in a way that is sort of deep and profound, and they’re about the human condition, foibles and all,” says Winters. “I really thought the Museum of Wisconsin Art should be behind that and supporting that and bringing that to our audiences.”
She hopes the program will “disabuse people of some false notions about cartooning and the complexity and the thought that goes into it.”
Paul Noth’s artistic process
Noth’s artistic process has been shaped by over 20 years at The New Yorker. When producing a batch of cartoons to submit to the magazine, he throws a lot of ideas at the wall. Most of the work doesn’t get published.
“There are tons and tons of submissions, even though I've been doing it for 20 years,” he says. “If I submit a batch, the most realistic expectation is that, of the 10, I will sell none. you know? [During] a very good week, I sell one.”
As seriously as Noth takes the work, he says he’s learned over the years to be less “precious” about leaving things on the cutting room floor. He likes to work quickly, producing many rough iterations of a single idea until something sticks.
“I see it as an art form, and there are a lot of cartoonists whose work I think absolutely should be in museums,” he says. “There's also something that is a little disposable about it and kind of disreputable about it at the same time, and I like it like that.”
A career in print
Noth has deep roots in Milwaukee print. His father was a Milwaukee Journal feature editor and film critic who always supported Noth’s art, but encouraged him to steer clear of print journalism. But that hasn’t stopped Noth from carving out a niche for himself, and he’s thankful that people continue to care about cartoons and comic strips.
“Since I moved here, I'm surprised to find that there's a lot of appreciation ... and just the response I've gotten from people is very gratifying to see that, despite what's happened to print journalism, people really love cartoons,” he says.
