Bunny Hoest

Bunny Hoest is one of the most widely read cartoonists today, reaching nearly 200 million diverse readers every week. She produced The Lockhorns, which King Features Syndicate distributes to 500 newspapers worldwide; Laugh Parade, featuring Howard Huge, for Parade Magazine, which is seen by more than 80 million people every Sunday; and the long-running Bumper Stickers for the National Enquirer, which has a circulation of more than 7 million.

Known as “The Cartoon Lady,” the dynamic and versatile talent has 25 best-selling anthologies and a host of exciting new projects in the works, including a "Lockhorns" TV pilot and a "Howard Huge" animated feature in development with Merv Griffin Entertainment.

Bill Hoest could draw well, letter attractively and legibly, design in an eye-catching fashion, direct and control the action and the expression of his characters, and write material that was genuinely funny. He then blended the elements to produce work that stood out on the comic’s page. I must now meet that same standard of excellence.

John Reiner

John Reiner, who started out as an assistant to the late Bill Hoest, has now become one of the busiest men in the world of comic strips.

Reiner not only has taken over production of Hoest’s classic comic panel "The Lockhorns", but also produces "Bumper Stickers" for the National Enquirer, and "Howard Huge" and "Laugh Parade" for Parade Magazine. "The Lockhorns", distributed by King Features Syndicate, chronicles the marital misadventures of Leroy and Loretta Lockhorn. The battling marrieds appear daily in more than 500 newspapers nationwide.

Born in 1956 in New York City, Reiner was raised on Long Island, graduating from Smithtown High School in 1974 and from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1978 as a psychology major.

In 1974 he met Mad magazine artist Mort Drucker, who encouraged him to pursue cartooning as a career. The next year, Reiner was hired by Captain America creator Joe Simon to work on his humor magazines.

He also worked for Marvel Comics and did freelance advertising art, humor illustrations and political caricatures until Drucker hired him in 1984 to work on King Features’ comic strip Benchly. In 1986, Hoest hired Reiner to assist on his three leading features: "The Lockhorns", "Agatha Crumm", and "What a Guy!"  By 1988 Reiner was assisting with all the Hoest features, and he continued working on them after Hoest’s death in 1988.

"Agatha Crumm" and "What a Guy!" were created in 1977 and 1987, respectively. Both ceased publication in 1996.

“Bill Hoest insisted in doing each of his comics meticulously,” Reiner says. “The artwork, writing, lettering and inking were all done in such a way as to meet his high self-imposed standards. I came to realize that his success, which so many cartoonists young and old tried to analyze, was the result of a simple rule: Learn to do each segment of a comic professionally.

“I am working hard, and I am having fun.”

Reiner won the 1994 National Cartoonists Society award for Gag cartoons. He is single and lives on Long Island in New York.