Chad Covert Darbyshire was born on an unusually cold day in 1972 on Long Island, New York.  His first cartoon appeared in the pages of the New Yorker on an unusually warm day in July of 2001.  The time in between those two seemingly unrelated dates has been described by many who knew him as unfocused, tedious and wasteful.  “Well, look whose laughing now.” (‘I Drew It My Way’ page 712, paragraph 11) says Darbyshire, who now out-sources most of his work to children in India.  “I usually phone in some rough ideas and they take it from there.” 

Whether or not you agree with his methods, it’s difficult to argue with his level of success.  Since his auspicious beginnings at the New Yorker, Darbyshire has gone on to sell over 30 cartoons to the magazine.  Not bad considering the captions have to be re-translated from rural Bengali.  “It’s a pain, but that’s where the affordable labor is.”

When not obsessively Googling himself, Chad can also be found writing and directing films and culture piercing TV spots in Austin, TX, where he attended UT (95’).  Chad is still married to his first wife, Marion, they have two young children, a dog and a cat that also live in their house.  If you want to know why his first name appears as a “C” in the magazine, ask his nemesis and cartoon colleague, Matthew Diffee.

View samples of C. Covert Darbyshire's work