Tom Forman (May 2, 1936 – May 18, 1996) was an American

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 ...

cartoonist. 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 th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, he graduated with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in government from

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...

. He is best known as the co-creator of the classic comic strip ''

Motley's Crew ''Motley's Crew'' was an American newspaper comic strip by Ben Templeton and Tom Forman with satirical social commentary. With readership spread among 250 newspapers in the United States alone, the comic strip acquired a highly devoted but rela ...

'' along with

Ben Templeton Ben Templeton (born c. 1940) is the co-creator of the classic comic strip ''Motley's Crew ''Motley's Crew'' was an American newspaper comic strip by Ben Templeton and Tom Forman with satirical social commentary. With readership spread amon ...

. His pre-1997 take on the comic strip involved Mike Motley's career as a

blue-collar worker A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and powe ...

, sports, and his friends. After Forman died of cancer, the storylines of the comic strip he helped create became more feminine and had "touchy-feely" parts at various points in the storyline. They dealt with being forced to say "hi" to the in-laws under embarrassing circumstances, attending various weddings, and letting out bottled emotions. This new spin on the comic strip alienated many older male viewers and may have led to its retirement on January 1, 2000.

References

* Wood, Barbara (May 23, 1996). "Forman, co-creator of 'Motley's Crew' at 60". ''

Los Angeles Daily News The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado-based Digital First Media. The offices of the ''Dai ...

''
Archive copy
at The Free Library. Retrieved on 2008-12-29. * 1936 births 1996 deaths American comic strip cartoonists Artists from Detroit California State University, Los Angeles alumni Deaths from cancer in California {{US-cartoonist-stub