Carroll approached the cartoonist of Punch magazine to illustrate Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
That cartoonist was John Tenniel, one of Victorian Britain’s leading political and graphic artists. Lewis Carroll was familiar with Tenniel’s work in Punch, where Tenniel joined the staff in 1850 and became chief cartoonist in 1864. Carroll asked him to replace Carroll’s own manuscript drawings with professional illustrations.
Tenniel produced 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the 1865 edition. His interpretations established the visual identities of Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Queen of Hearts for generations of readers. The collaboration was not entirely easy, because Carroll was highly particular about how the pictures should represent the text.
The magazine name is sometimes confused with the illustrator’s name. Punch was the publication; John Tenniel was its cartoonist. Tenniel later illustrated Carroll’s sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, published in 1871.