Tony Millionaire drew his first illustration for The Believer in 2003, when the magazine was just getting off the ground. When we resumed publishing after a hiatus in 2017, Tony was the first to call us up. He asked to meet for French fries and beer and waxed on, with his characteristic enthusiasm, about getting his pen in ink again on this site and in our print pages. Over seventeen years, Tony published hundreds of portraits, mostly to accompany Believer interviews. When he was succeeded as Believer portraitist by Samar Haddad, we put together many of our favorites.
—The Editors
Row 2: Valentine Freeman, John Waters, Courtney Barnett, “Coffee Mug,” Justin Torres
Row 3: “Time Management,” Jonathan Gold, Anne Carson, Noah Baumbach, Mitchell S. Jackson
Row 4: Griffin Newman, Mira Gonzalez, Angelo Badalamenti, Barry Jenkins, “American Cigarettes”
Row 5: Jason Moran, Jessica Bruder, “Windom High School Yearbook,” Hanya Yanagihara, Maria Bamford
Row 2: Darren O’Donnell, James Baldwin, Sinéad O’Connor, Simon Rich, “Football Player”
Row 3: “Kindness Dove,” Fatima Abdelrahman, Carrie Brownstein, Chris Martin, Sloane Crosley
Row 4: Michael Schur, “Bill Cotter,” Ed Park, Margo Jefferson, Lil B
Row 5: Elizabeth LeCompte, Stephin Merritt, Leslie Feist, “Satanic Goat,” Nick Offerman
Row 2: Kenneth Goldsmith, David Byrne, Sandra Cisneros, Sam Mendes, Thao Nguyen
Row 3: Thom Yorke, “Outhouse,” Mika Rottenberg, Brontez Purnell, Cintra Wilson
Row 4: Scott Walker, Matana Roberts, José Orduña, Enya, “Yoda in Sunglasses”
Row 5: Sandor Ellix Katz, Zadie Smith, Hannibal Buress, “Maryland House of Delegates,” Mike Leigh
Row 2: Nikki Darling, David Fincher, Victoria Legrand, “Drum Guy,” Raphael Saadiq
Row 3: Rudy Wurlitzer, Jesse Ball, Natasha Trethewey, Geoff Dyer, Rebecca Taylor
Row 4: Blood plasma, Marianne Constable, Susan Straight, Reggie Watts, “Chinese Building”
Row 5: Rob Zombie, “A Friday of the Living Dead Nightmare,” Greta Gerwig, Frank Stella, Walter Murch
Row 2: Aubrey Plaza, Wyatt Cenac, “Writing About Music,” Steven Yeun, Colin Dayan
Row 3: Deborah Eisenberg, Joe Frank, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Renata Adler, Ishmael Butler
Row 4: “Internet Fight,” Tom Spanbauer, Daveed Diggs, Audrey Wollen, Helen DeWitt
Row 5: Michael Ian Black, Tavi Gevinson, Gordon Willis, Keith Knight, “Shetland Sheepdog”
Row 2: B-Boy Blakk, John Coltrane, Fran Lebowitz, Tracy K. Smith, Meredith Monk
Row 3: Chuck Palahniuk, Harry Mathews, Lido Pimienta, James Lawson, “Miami”
Row 4: Winnie Wong, “Suits,” Amber Scorah, Kumail Nanjiani, Bill Evans
Row 5: Paul Feig, Francisco Goldman, “Dr. Mindbender,” Taylor Swift, Morgan Parker
Row 2: “Beatables,” Frank Ocean, Zainab Salbi, Antony Hegarty, Min Jin Lee
Row 3: Kogonada, Lola Kirke, Nora Ephron, Bruce Jay Friedman, Pat Martino
Row 4: Morgan Jerkins, “Stack of Turtles,” Tehching Hsieh, Ezra Koenig, Elizabeth Bishop
Row 5: Angela Dimayuga, Jeanette Winterson, “‘Flying Nun’ Record Label,” Donald Hall, Lætitia Sadier
Row 2: Rostam Batmanglij, Myriam Gurba, “Secret Clubhouse,” Silvia Federici, Mira Jacob
Row 3: Japanese Breakfast, Lena Dunham, Anonymous, “The Monster Times,” Tyehimba Jess
Row 4: Clarice Lispector, “Pizza Man,” Mark Romanek, Pamela Z, Jane Birkin
Row 5: “Baby Doll,” Buck Henry, Amy Fusselman, Vanna White, Masha Gessen
