Cliff Roberts



Cliff Roberts (1929-1999) was a cartoonist and animator who worked on inserts for Sesame Street as well as the Sesame Street Comic Strip and Sesame Street Magazine. Roberts spent much of his early career in New York City as a freelance commercial artist and director. He also worked as a photographer, with work displayed at the 1964 World's Fair, and contributed cartoons to Playboy and New Yorker.

For Sesame Street, Roberts created Jasper and Julius, the two characters who would engage in debates over body parts and objects, as well as other animated shorts using a squiggly, minimalist style. Jasper and Julius were brought over to Roberts' Sesame Street strip, along with Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Roberts later worked on such Saturday morning series as The Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, and The Pink Panther, and illustrated the Lagnston Hughes book The First Book of Jazz. He retired in 1993.