Feb 2, 2019 2 min read

The Observer-Reporter’s “Funnies” section will be getting a puzzling twist, starting Sunday.

MazeToons are illustrated mazes drawn by Joe Wos of Penn Hills, whose syndicated puzzles run in newspapers around the nation and the globe, including Australia.

Wos, who grew up in Braddock, started drawing mazes at age 7. More than 30 years later, he’s turned it into a career.

“I grew up in the 1970s, and during that time, mazes were a phenomenon,” he said. “They are sort of this universal experience that people really enjoy. I’m amazed by them.”

Wos has come up with what he calls a “hybrid” of cartoons and puzzles, with the cartoon illustrations being an integrated part of the maze.

“Some cartoonists have illustrations on the side of the maze and others will design a maze in the shape of something,” he said. “But this has always been something unique to me.”

Wos had been drawing mazes as a hobby his whole life. He’s gone to several schools across the country and drawn maze murals. He’s published several books of themed mazes. In 2013, he held the Guinness World Record for the largest hand-drawn maze. That record has since been broken.

He also founded and directed the ToonSeum in Pittsburgh for seven years.

“I got tired of hanging other people’s artwork on the walls and wanted to do something of my own,” he said. “I always dreamed of getting into the funny pages, but that’s a very difficult thing to do.”

In 2015, his mazes started appearing in newspapers. The Observer-Reporter will be running one every Sunday, and they will be a little bigger and more challenging than Wos’ daily mazes.

“I’m excited to be able to pick up a paper locally and see it in there,” he said.

Wos said the Sunday mazes take him one to two hours to draw and color.

“I just sit down and start drawing them,” he said. “I don’t know the solution until I’m done.”