''The Berrys'' was a family

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

drawn by

Carl Grubert Carl Alfred Grubert, Jr. (September 11, 1911 – September 26, 1979) was an American cartoonist who drew the comic strip, ''The Berrys'' for more than three decades. A 1934 alumnus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Grubert served in t ...

and distributed by

Field Newspaper Syndicate The Field Newspaper Syndicate was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated independently from 1941 to 1984, for a good time under the name the Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate. The service was founded by Marshall Field III and was part of F ...

. It ran from October 30, 1942, until December 28, 1974. A 1934 alumnus of the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, Grubert had a background in Chicago advertising and served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the period when he created ''The Berrys''.

Characters and story

The strip chronicled the life of the Berry family, which was composed of father Peter, mother Pat, daughter Jill, son Jackie and baby brother, Jimmie. (Although one source gives the mother's name as Hazel rather than Pat, copies of the strip confirm the mother's name as Pat.) ''The Phrase Finder'' credits ''The Berrys'' for an early use during the 1950s of the term "no-brainer": :No-brainer is American in origin and first began being used there in the 1950s. The first example that I've found of its use in the "requiring little mental effort" sense is this ''The Berrys'' cartoon, by Carl Grubert. It appeared in the ''

Long Beach Independent The ''Press-Telegram'' is a paid daily newspaper published in Long Beach, California. Coverage area for the ''Press-Telegram'' includes Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Compton, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, Lynw ...

'', December 1959.The Phrase Finder
/ref> Grubert died in 1979, five years after the conclusion of his strip. Emil Zlatos lived in Skokie, Illinois and ghosted the Berry's for many years. Mr. Zlatos drew many of the covers for the Chicago Sunday Times TV Prevue magazine and retired as the Sun-Times assistant editorial art director in 1978. Mr. Zlatos died in Arizona on October 9, 2002. Obituary, Chicago Sun Times October 12, 2002.

References

External links

* 1942 comics debuts 1974 comics endings American comics characters American comic strips Comics characters introduced in 1942 Fictional families Comics about married people Gag-a-day comics {{comic-strip-stub