Harry Bliss didn't stumble into children's literature—his master's thesis was on the history of Little Golden Books—but like Roger Duvoisin, Tibor Gergely, Ian Falconer, Maira Kalman, Roz Chast, Edward Koren, William Steig and others, his path to picture books led through the offices of the New Yorker.

"In picture books and cartoons, the images have a life beyond the two dimensions you see," Bliss said. "I remember Art Spiegelman telling me about the 'time between the panels,' but there's also time between the pages. I want readers to be able to imagine what happens between the pages."

To that end, Bliss has earned a reputation with critics and children for not missing any opportunity to extend the story—always in service of getting another laugh. The end papers of Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin (HarperCollins/Cotler) feature snapshots from Spider's family album. The book fair posters in the mock-horrific Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth by Alison McGhee (Candlewick) announce the sale of Harry Plotter and the Huge Cavity. Even the Post-it notes affixed to Tillie's school books in Sharon Creech's A Fine, Fine School—"Massive Quiz Saturday," reads one—are a chance to slip in another joke.

Bliss grew up in an art-filled house in Rochester, N.Y., the child of a couple who met in art school. His father ran a graphic design studio and painted at home. Holiday get-togethers often devolved into debates about modern art—even among the kids. "If we couldn't tell the difference between a Braques and a Picasso, we were beaten," Bliss jokes.

He enrolled in art school but found the studio work "superfluous." He eventually got a degree—in case he wanted to teach—in book illustration. That training led to steady work designing jackets, mostly for mysteries, at St. Martin's Press.

Though he counts Charles M. Schulz as an influence, Bliss, now 41, was not a cartoonist as a kid. It was during an outing with his own kid, Alexander, then two, that his latent cartooning talent was triggered. On their way to a park, he ducked into a rare book shop in Nyack, N.Y., to buy something to read. He chose a cartoon collection by New Yorker legend Charles Addams.

"They were so well done and I remembered that, growing up, the New Yorker came to our house every week. It all sort of clicked and I ran back home and put together some samples."

Bliss's first cover appeared on the New Year's 1998 edition. Since then he's done 15 covers and 70-odd cartoons for the magazine. His work attracted the attention of William Steig. The two corresponded, and Steig suggested Bliss meet with his agent, Holly McGhee. "Holly was terrific," says Bliss. "Through Holly came Joanna Cotler."

Bliss's illustrations for A Fine, Fine School (HarperCollins/Cotler)—full of what are now his trademark sight gags and speech bubbles—added comic ballast to Creech's satiric text about a principal who carries his love of learning too far. And Cotler had more work for him—including a Steig book and a triptych of manuscripts from Cronin that began with last year's bestselling Diary of a Worm, and continues with this season's Diary of a Spider.

Next up is Louise: The Adventures of a Chicken (HarperCollins/Cotler), by Kate DiCamillo. Bliss believes the book will be his "breakout." "There's something about the way Kate writes that inspires me to no end," he says, although inspiration seems hardly lacking. The boy who never cartooned says he grew up to be a man who can't stop. "I'm cartooning all the time now."

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Corbett reviews children's books for the Miami Herald.