''Gil Thorp'' is a sports-oriented

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

which has been published since September 8, 1958. The main character, Gil Thorp, is the athletic director of Milford High School and coaches the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

teams. In addition to the sports storylines, the strip also deals with issues facing teenagers such as teen pregnancy,

steroids A steroid is an organic compound with four fused rings (designated A, B, C, and D) arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter mem ...

, and drug abuse.

History

The strip was created by Jack Berrill, who modeled and named Thorp after baseball player

Gil Hodges Gilbert Raymond Hodges (born Hodge; April 4, 1924 – April 2, 1972) was an American first baseman and manager (baseball), manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played most of his 18-year career for the History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Broo ...

and Olympic athlete

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe (; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete who won Olympic gold medals and played professional American football, football, baseball, and basketball. A citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was ...

. The setting of Milford is named for

New Milford, Connecticut New Milford is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town, part of Greater Danbury, as well as the New York Metropolitan Area, has a population of 28,115 as of the 2020 census. New Milford lies north of Danbury on the ...

when he began writing the strip. Berrill continued the strip until he died of cancer on March 14, 1996. Over the course of his 38 years, Berrill broke ground with many of his stories, often dealing with sensitive social issues of the day. As editorial standards relaxed, he was able to move from stories about jalopies and after-school jobs to topics like teen pregnancy, divorce, steroids, and

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

. When the ''

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in the Denver metropolitan area. it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 mil ...

'' had a problem getting a week's worth of strips, the newspaper received over 30,000 calls.

Writers

Upon Berrill's death, Tribune Media Services chose author

Jerry Jenkins Jerry Bruce Jenkins (born September 23, 1949) is an American writer. He is best known for the ''Left Behind'' series, written with Tim LaHaye. Jenkins also writes the novels following the TV series about Jesus, ''The Chosen''. Jenkins has writte ...

(co-author of the ''

Left Behind ''Left Behind'' is a multimedia franchise of apocalyptic fiction written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, released by Tyndale House Publishers from 1995 to 2007. The bestselling premillennial novels are Christian eschatological narrat ...

'' novels) to take over writing the strip. Jenkins had been in discussions with TMS about expanding previous ''Gil Thorp'' stories into a series of youth novels and was a logical replacement. Many of Jenkins' stories were written uncredited by his son Chad Jenkins, a baseball coach at Bethel College. The Jenkins stories discussed overtly religious topics which had not appeared in the strip before, including an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

football player and a 15-year-old pregnant girl whom Thorp talks out of getting an abortion. In 2004, Jenkins was followed as writer by ''

Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on February ...

'' columnist Neal Rubin. In 2022, the Tribune Content Agency announced that graphic novel writer Henry Barajas would take over authorship of the strip beginning in July of that year.

Artists

The strip was drawn by Berrill from 1958–1993 until

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can lead to damage of the optic nerve. The optic nerve transmits visual information from the eye to the brain. Glaucoma may cause vision loss if left untreated. It has been called the "silent thief of ...

forced him to turn the reins over to his Connecticut Cartoonist Associate colleague

Warren Sattler Warren Sattler (born September 7, 1934) is an American artist and cartoonist, who contributed work to many popular publications from the early 1960s through the 1990s. Biography A lifelong Connecticut resident, Warren Sattler started cartooning ...

. Later,

Frank Bolle Frank W. Bolle (June 23, 1924 – May 12, 2020) was an American comic-strip artist, comic book artist and illustrator, best known as the longtime artist of the newspaper strips ''Winnie Winkle'' and ''The Heart of Juliet Jones''; for stints on th ...

took over. followed by Ray Burns. Frank McLaughlin took over following Burns' death in 2000. On February 18, 2008, '' Apartment 3G'' artist Frank Bolle again took over art chores for ''Gil Thorp'' on an interim basis. Rod Whigham became the permanent artist two months later. Starting September 30, 2024 Rachel Merrill will become the artist for ''Gil Thorp''.

The Bucket

The Bucket was an online forum hosted by the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'', named after the teen burger hangout in the strip, The Bucket. It was a lively site for 15 years and featured discussions about the strip and other topics. Members of the community were known as "Bucketeers".

References

External links

Gil Thorp on GoComics.com
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on August 28, 2016.

by Michael Miner, ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

'', April 18, 2003 (Archived May 13, 2003). {{DEFAULTSORT:Gil Thorp American comic strips 1958 comics debuts American football comics Baseball comics Basketball comics Drama comics Slice of life comics Thorp, Gil Thorp, Gil Thorp, Gil Thorp, Gil Thorp, Gil Comics set in the United States Comic strips syndicated by Tribune Content Agency GoComics Sports comics