Bob Staake (b. September 26, 1957 in Los Angeles, California) is an American illustrator, cartoonist, childrens book author, and designer. He lives and works in Chatham, Massachusetts on the elbow of Cape Cod.

Staake attended the University of Southern California (1977) on a Journalism/International relations scholorship. Interned at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial’s Students Press Law Center.

Illustrations by Staake appear in The New Yorker, Time, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and others. Illustrations by Staake are used in advertising by such companies as McDonald’s, American Express, Sony, United Airlines, Nickelodeon, Sports Illustrated For Kids, Ralston Purina, Hallmark Cards, Kenner Toys, and others. Starting in 1993, Staake illustrated and contributed concepts to The Style Invitational, which is a humor contest at The Washington Post. In 1995, Staake became a regular contributor to Mad Magazine. In the September 4, 2006 issue of The New Yorker, Staake created the first of many cover illustrations to follow for that magazine. Staake is noted for using old software to create his illustrations. He currently uses Adobe Photoshop 3.0 on Classic in Mac OS X.

Staake began working in the field of book illustration in 1992 when he illustrated Jay Leno’s Headlines, published by Warner Books. He turned to children’s publishing in 1998 with his first authored and illustrated book for children, My Little 1 2 3 Book, a 26 page board book published by Little Simon. He has gone on to illustrate and author numerous books for children, including The Red Lemon, which was named by The New York Times as one of the ten best illustrated children’s books of 2006.

Staake explains important aspects of caricature in his 1991 book, The Complete Book of Caricature published by North Light Books. Staake details how a subjects personality is incorporated into a drawing and provides extensive reference materials to use while drawing as well as techniques. Staake used extensive samples of caricature professionals including David Levine, and Ralph Steadman and others. In 1990, 1991 and 1993, Staake wrote and co-edited the Humor and Cartoon Markets books, all of which were resource books which listed magazines, newsletters, greeting card companies and other publishers who purchase humorous illustrations on a regular basis. In 1996, Staake wrote The Complete Book of Humorous Art published by North Light Books, in which he interviews 20 humorous illustrators, including Gary Baseman, Lou Brooks, Elwood Smith and others who describe how they create their illustrations for magazines, ads, posters, books, greeting cards and packaging.

(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Staake)