Robert Leighton

Asked why he creates cartoons and puzzles, two apparently different kinds of work, Leighton replied: "I think a puzzle is like a cartoon, like a joke, because the puzzle is the setup and the solution is the punch line. A good puzzle keeps you in suspense while you’re working on it, like a cartoon. And the ‘aha!’ is the equivalent of the laugh when a joke is resolved.”

In May 2014, Puzzability was hired by Campbell Ewald advertising agency to create an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) for the U.S. Navy’s cryptology division. The resulting puzzle-based game, Project Architeuthis, won 11 advertising awards and resulted in a sequel, Operation Sleeper Shark. Both games played out in real time on Facebook.

Since 2002, Leighton has been a regular contributor of single-panel cartoons to The New Yorker. He has also created comic strips and humorous illustrated puzzles. In 2006, with his partners at Puzzability, Leighton wrote "The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games" which used approximately 700 New Yorker cartoons and their captions as the basis for a variety of puzzle types.

Robert Leighton is an American writer and artist, cartoonist, puzzle writer, illustrator, and humorist. He lives and works in New York City. His cartoons have appeared regularly in The New Yorker and other periodicals. In 1996, with Mike Shenk and Amy Goldstein, Leighton co-founded Puzzability, a puzzle-writing company. As part of Puzzability, Leighton has coauthored many books of puzzles, as well as puzzle-oriented Op-Ed pieces for The New York Times.

Leighton was a contributor of cartoons, puzzles, and other humorous articles to Nickelodeon Magazine for its entire run (1993–2009) as well as a contributing writer and editor at National Lampoon magazine in the early 90s.

In the 1970s, Leighton made an appearance on the television program To Tell the Truth, as the central character (himself, the real "Robert Leighton"). He and the two impostors stumped the panel of judges and shared the $500 prize money.