Gerald John "Jerry" Dumas (June 6, 1930 – November 12, 2016) was an American cartoonist, best known for his ''

Sam and Silo ''Sam and Silo'' is an American comic strip created by Mort Walker (creator of ''Beetle Bailey'' and ''Hi and Lois'') and Jerry Dumas, which began on April 18, 1977. The series is a "continuation" or a spin-off of ''Sam's Strip'' (1961-1963), as ...

'' comic strip. Dumas was also a writer, illustrator, and essayist, and a columnist for the '' Greenwich Time''.

Biography

Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, Dumas started drawing cartoons when he was nine years old. In 1954, after serving in the Air Force and earning a degree in English from Arizona State University, he worked with cartoonist Walt Ditzen in Phoenix and contributed drawings to the '' State Press''. In 1956 he moved to Greenwich, Connecticut to work for

Mort Walker Addison Morton Walker (September 3, 1923 – January 27, 2018) was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips ''Beetle Bailey'' in 1950 and ''Hi and Lois'' in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips. ...

as a gag writer and illustrator on the comic strips ''

Hi and Lois ''Hi and Lois'' is an American comic strip about a suburban family. Created by Mort Walker and illustrated by Dik Browne, both of whose offspring currently work on the strip, it debuted on October 18, 1954, distributed by King Features Syndicate.R ...

'' and ''

Beetle Bailey ''Beetle Bailey'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker, published since September 4, 1950. It is set on a fictional United States Army post. In the years just before Walker's death in 2018 (at age 94), it was among the old ...

''. Together with Walker, he created ''

Sam's Strip ''Sam's Strip'' was a humorous comic strip created and produced by Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas. It was distributed by King Features Syndicate from October 2, 1961 to June 1, 1963. The series depended heavily on metahumor and appearances by fam ...

'' in 1961. It only lasted until 1963 but was resurrected as ''

'' in 1977, still with Walker. Dumas continued the comic strip on his own from 1995 on. In 1968, he also collaborated on all aspects of the comic strip ''

Boner's Ark ''Boner's Ark'' is an American comic strip created by Mort Walker, also the creator of ''Beetle Bailey''. Walker debuted the strip under the pseudonym "Addison" on March 11, 1968. The title is a reference to Noah's Ark of Abrahamic religions. Des ...

''. Apart from his work with Walker, Dumas also worked on other comic strips like ''Benchley'' with

Mort Drucker Morris "Mort" Drucker (March 22, 1929 – April 9, 2020) was an American caricaturist and comics artist best known as a contributor for over five decades in '' Mad'', where he specialized in satires on the leading feature films and televisio ...

and ''McCall of the Wild'' with Mel Crawford. In addition to his comic strip work, Dumas created numerous illustrations and cartoons. First selling them to the local ''Teen'' magazine, he soon was published in magazines and newspapers like ''

The 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 ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. As a writer, he contributed essays to the '' Atlantic Monthly'', the '' Smithsonian'', and '' The Connoisseur''. He authored the children's book ''Rabbits Rafferty'', published in 1968, and his childhood memoir, ''An Afternoon in Waterloo Park'', published in 1972. Dumas lived in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast, Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and other ...

, with his wife Gail, with whom he had three sons. He died on November 12, 2016 from neuroendocrine cancer at the age of 86.

Awards

* 1971: A talented handball player, Dumas won numerous titles, including the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

championship in 1971. * 1985:

Adamson Award Adamson Awards is a Swedish award awarded to notable cartoonists, named after the famous Swedish comic strip "Adamson" (Silent Sam). They have been presented by the Swedish Academy of Comic Art (SACA) since 1965. There have been years in that ti ...

for his work on ''Sam's Strip'' and ''Sam and Silo'' * 2005: Convocation Speaker of the Arizona State University College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

References

External links

Anne W. Semmes interview with Jerry Dumas (March 19, 2010)Dumas' ''Greenwich Time'' columnsNational Cartoonists Society: Jerry Dumas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dumas, Jerry American comics writers American comics artists American columnists Arizona State University alumni 1930 births 2016 deaths