Jeffery Lynn Millar (July 10, 1942 – November 30, 2012) was an American comic strip writer and

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outl ...

best known for creating the ''

Tank McNamara ''Tank McNamara'' is a daily syndicated comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Hinds. The strip debuted on August 5, 1974, with Jeff Millar as writer and Hinds as illustrator. Hinds took over writing after the death of Millar in late Novem ...

'' comic strip with illustrator

Bill Hinds Bill Hinds (born April 21, 1950, in Houston, Texas) is an American sports cartoonist, whose work includes the sports cartoon feature ''Buzz Beamer'', and the syndicated comic strips ''Cleats'' and ''Tank McNamara''.Parks, Louis B"The man behind ...

.Gerber, Marisa (December 9, 2012)
Jeff Millar dies at 70; 'Tank McNamara' comic strip creator.
'

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

Early life and education

Millar was born in

Pasadena, Texas Pasadena () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 151,950, making it the twentieth most populous city in the state of Texas, as well as the second-largest cit ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

Career

Millar began covering entertainment for the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''.Cavna, Michael (December 3, 2012)
RIP, Jeff Millar: ‘Tank McNamara’ co-creator Bill Hinds memorializes his good friend’s ‘bewildered’ sense of humor.
''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' ''Tank McNamara'' debuted in 1974. Millar retired from the ''Chronicle'' in 2000. Millar also wrote fiction, including the 1975 story “Toto, I Have a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore,” which appeared in ''

Orbit Science Fiction ''Orbit Science Fiction'' was an American science fiction magazine anthology published in 1953 and 1954 by the Hanro Corporation. Only 5 issues were published, each of which were edited by Donald A. Wollheim, although Jules Saltman was credite ...

.'' He published the thriller novel ''Private Sector'' in 1978. He co-authored a

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

story with Alex Stern titled ''Dead and Buried'', which was adapted into the 1981 horror movie '' Dead & Buried''.

Death and legacy

Millar died in late November 2012 due to

bile duct cancer Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a type of cancer that forms in the bile ducts. Symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma may include abdominal pain, yellowish skin, weight loss, generalized itching, and fever. Light colored stool ...

; illustrator Hinds took over the writing of ''Tank McNamara'' after Millar's death. Shortly after Millar's death, he was posthumously awarded the 2012 Houston Film Critics Society Award for Outstanding Achievement.

References

External links

Tank McNamara
via

Universal Uclick Andrews McMeel Syndication (formerly Universal Uclick) is an American content syndicate which provides syndication in print, online and on mobile devices for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and cartoons and various other ...

1942 births 2012 deaths American cartoonists American film critics {{US-cartoonist-stub