Gerald John 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), ...

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 ...

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

Biography

Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, 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 Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

, 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 children currently work on the strip, it debuted on October 18, 1954, distributed by King Features Syndicate ...

'' 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 famo ...

'' in 1961, a

metafictional Metafiction is a form of fiction that emphasizes its own narrative structure in a way that inherently reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and storyte ...

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

of comics, featuring a lot of parodies of other comic characters. 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. D ...

''. 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 (magazine), Mad'', where he specialized in satires on the leading feature film ...

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'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. As a writer, he contributed essays to the ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...

'', 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 New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 63,518. It is the largest town on Gold Coast (Connecticut), Connectic ...

, 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 Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player, Dumas won numerous titles, including the

New England New England is a region consisting of 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 ...

championship in 1971. * 1985: Adamson Award 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 humorous columnists American parodists American humorists American essayists American satirical comics artists American children's writers Arizona State University alumni 1930 births 2016 deaths Writers from Detroit