GONICK, Larry 1946-

PERSONAL: Born August 24, 1946, in San Francisco, CA; son of Emanuel (a teacher) and Mollie (a teacher; maiden name, Rebhun) Gonick; married Francine Prose (a writer), December 29, 1967 (divorced, 1976); married Lisa Goldschmid (a homemaker), August 11, 1978; children: Sophie, Anna. Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1967, A.M., 1969, further graduate study, 1969-72.

ADDRESSES: Office—480 Potrero Ave., San Francisco, CA 94110.

CAREER: Cartoonist, 1972—.

WRITINGS:

(With Mark Wheelis) The Cartoon Guide to Genetics, Harper (New York, NY), 1983.

The Cartoon Guide to Computer Science, Harper (New York, NY), 1983.

The Cartoon Guide to U.S. History, Harper (New York, NY), Volume I: 1585-1865, 1987, Volume II, 1988.

The Cartoon History of the Universe: Volumes 1-7, from the Big Bang to Alexander the Great, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1990.

The Cartoon History of the United States, HarperPerennial (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Art Huffman) The Cartoon Guide to Physics, Harper (New York, NY), 1991.

The Cartoon History of the Universe II: Volumes 8-13, from the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1994.

The Cartoon Guide to (non)Communication: The Use and Misuse of Information in the Modern World, Harper (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Woollcott Smith) The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, Harper (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Alice Outwater) The Cartoon Guide to the Environment, Harper (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Christine DeVault) The Cartoon Guide to Sex, Harper (New York, NY), 1999.

The Cartoon History of the Universe III: Volumes 14-19, from the Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance, Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Craig Criddle) The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry, HarperResources (New York, NY), 2004.

Author of "Cartoon Kitchen," a syndicated weekly recipe cartoon strip.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A fourth volume of The Cartoon History of the Universe.

SIDELIGHTS: Larry Gonick uses cartoons to explore serious subjects—history, science, sex—in a humourous yet informative and thorough manner. His multivolume The Cartoon History of the Universe has "developed an enthusiastic, even distinguished following," Gonick once told CA. Gonick aims for his cartoon history to "include everything that needs to be in it," as the author told Publishers Weekly reporter Calvin Reid. His works on other topics are likewise comprehensive; The Cartoon Guide to Sex, for instance, provides "lots of information within an inherently limiting format," a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented.

Gonick once told CA that he abandoned graduate studies in mathematics for cartooning because "I wanted to abandon the esoteric for the accessible and popular." His first book, The Cartoon History of the Universe: Volumes 1-7, from the Big Bang to Alexander the Great, tells its story with "casual erudition" and "silly humor," Penny Kaganoff observed in Publishers Weekly. Gonick's history includes a look at some groups of people who have been underrepresented in traditional accounts. He shows that history has been made not only by Caucasian males, giving ample space to the contributions of women and black Africans, and he deals with slaves as well as masters, common people as well as leaders, and vanquished warriors as well as victorious ones.

Gonick continues his chronicle in The Cartoon History of the Universe II: Volumes 8-13, from the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome, which seeks to expand readers' international perspective by highlighting Eastern civilizations and religions as well as such Western phenomena as the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. The book is "a work of scholarship and looniness," according to Entertainment Weekly reviewer Ken Tucker. Booklist contributor John Mort maintained that Gonick's series constitutes "a delightful way to be introduced to world history."

The next entry in the series, The Cartoon History of the Universe III: Volumes 14-19, from the Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance, is in much the same style, with an expansive, multicultural, but humorous view of developments in Europe, Africa, and Asia, ending with Columbus bound for the Western Hemisphere. Gonick portrays common folks making observations "in waggish modern-day fashion" on historic events, reported Ray Olson in Booklist. While he found much of merit the volume, Olson was displeased by what he saw as its "derogation of religion." Boston Globe critic James Sallis, meanwhile, praised all aspects of the book, including its "wonderfully researched narrative" and "eccentric takes." Gonick, Sallis added, "has both a marvelous grasp of historical tides and the extraordinary ability to cook myriad disparate elements down to a tasty soup."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

BioScience, October, 1992, Tom Haffie, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe, Volumes 1-7, from the Big Bang to Alexander the Great, p. 707.

Booklist, August, 1994, John Mort, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe II: Volumes 8-13, from the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome, p. 1986; May 1, 1998, review of The Cartoon History of the United States, p. 1511; September 15, 2002, Ray Olson, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe III: Volumes 14-19, from the Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance, p. 198.

Boston Globe, December 22, 2002, James Sallis, "From Arabia to Columbus, a Cartoon History Installment," p. D7.

Entertainment Weekly, November 11, 1994, Ken Tucker, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe II, p. 68.

Kliatt, July, 2003, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe III, p. 6.

New York Times Book Review, December 18, 1994, Jonathan Spence, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe, Volmues 1-7, p. 15.

Publishers Weekly, July 7, 1990, Penny Kaganoff, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe: Volumes 1-7, p. 227; September 19, 1994, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe II, p. 64; May 17, 1999, review of The Cartoon Guide to Sex, p. 67; September 16, 2002, Calvin Reid, "History, Jackie O and Comix," p. 36.

School Library Journal, September, 1996, Pam Johnson, review of The Cartoon Guide to the Environment, p. 240.

Times Literary Supplement, September 27, 1991, Nathan Nicol, review of The Cartoon History of the Universe, Volumes 1-7, p. 28.*