Bliss has been a staff cartoonist at
The New Yorker magazine since 1997. His cartoon work has been published in
The New York Times,
Time magazine, the
Philadelphia Inquirer magazine, and other periodicals in the United States. He was a regular cartoonist for
Playboy magazine from 1999 to 2016. He worked with cartoon editor
Michelle Urry at
Playboy. Urry, a strong advocate for cartoonists like
Gahan Wilson,
Jules Feiffer, and
Arnold Roth was responsible for getting Bliss's cartoons into the hands of
Playboy editor
Hugh Hefner. Bliss dedicated
Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken to Urry after her untimely death in 2006. His self-titled daily single-panel cartoon appears in major newspapers in the United States, Canada, and Japan. Bliss has published over 5,668 cartoons since 2005. Bliss' first book for children,
A Fine, Fine School, written by Sharon Creech, was a Children's Picture Book
New York Times bestseller, as were
Diary of a Worm,
Diary of a Spider, and
Diary of a Fly (all written by
Doreen Cronin). Beginning in 2019,
Amazon Studios began airing a children's series 'Bug Diaries' based on these best-selling titles. His self-titled cartoon collection
Death by Laughter, with an introduction by
Christopher Guest, was published in 2008. In 2008 Bliss published
Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken (HarperCollins), written by
Kate DiCamillo. In 2008, Bliss, advised by editorial team
Art Spiegelman and
Françoise Mouly, contributed a popular and critically acclaimed
Toon Book,
Luke On The Loose, which was the first book written and illustrated in
comic book form by the artist.
Bailey, a picture book for children written and illustrated by Bliss, was published by
Scholastic in the fall of 2011 and followed by
Bailey At the Museum in 2012. Then he illustrated
Anna and Solomon published by FSG (written by his mother-in-law, Elaine Snyder). In April 2015
Grandma in Blue With Red Hat, illustrated by Bliss, was published by Abrams. Most recent illustrated children's books include ''My Favorite Pets: By Gus W. For Miss Smolinski's Class
by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf 2016), Grace for Gus
(HarperCollins 2018), Good, Rosie
by DiCamillo (Candlewick 2018) and Comics Confidential'' by Leonard Marcus. In 2019 Bliss teamed up with entertainer
Steve Martin, collaborating on cartoons and comic strips.
Celadon Books published their best-selling cartoon collection 'A Wealth of Pigeons' in the fall of 2020. Bliss and Martin published their second book together, ‘Number One is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions’ in November of 2022. Both were New York Times bestsellers.
Celadon published Bliss’ cartoon memoir, ‘You Can Never Die,’ in 2025. Bliss has been on the board of directors for The
Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) which is based in
White River Junction,
Vermont. In 2016, in conjunction with CCS, Bliss created a new one-month fellowship for cartoonists, the "Cornish CCS Residency Fellowship," housed in a home in
Cornish, New Hampshire which he bought (it was owned by author
J. D. Salinger). As an animal rights activist, Bliss has regularly contributed covers for
PETA's
Animal Times magazine and designed sculptures for PETA which have appeared in major American cities in an ongoing effort to stop animal suffering.
McDonald's,
Ringling Brothers Circus, and
Kentucky Fried Chicken are among the prime targets of Bliss's and PETAs efforts. Since 2004 Bliss has visited many schools and interacted with thousands of children all over the world teaching comics/drawing/satire. He has traveled to
Peru,
Bucharest,
Moscow,
Saint Petersburg,
Singapore, and
Dubai as well as within the United States. The goal with the school visits is to demonstrate the need for creating critical thinking through drawing. With accessible language for kids and educators and aided by a fun interactive "scribble" game, he seeks to illuminate perception based on the act of drawing. ==Controversy==