James Crossley Raymond (February 25, 1917 – October 14, 1981) was an American

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 ...

artist and the younger brother of ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...

'' artist

Alex Raymond Alexander Gillespie Raymond Jr. (October 2, 1909 – September 6, 1956) was an American cartoonist and illustrator who was best known for creating the ''Flash Gordon'' comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently a ...

. He was also the great-uncle of actors

Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Independent Spirit Awards alongside nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, ...

and Kevin Dillon.

Biography

Born in

Riverside, Connecticut Riverside is a neighborhood/section in the town of Greenwich in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 8,843. The town of Greenwich is one political and taxing body, but consists of several ...

and raised in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle ( ; in ) is a Political subdivisions of New York State#City, city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located approximately from Midtow ...

, Raymond's first cartoons were published in his high school newspaper. In 1935, he started as an assistant on the '' Blondie'' comic strip, mostly as a replacement for his brother, who had been working on ''Blondie'' for three years before leaving to start his own strips. Initially, Raymond's responsibilities were quite minor, but by 1937, when the first son of ''Blondie'' creator

Chic Young Murat Bernard "Chic" Young (January 9, 1901March 14, 1973) was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie''. His 1919 ''William McKinley High School Yearbook'' cites his nickname as Chicken, source of hi ...

died of

jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or, less frequently, greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving ...

, Raymond was considered experienced enough to take over both writing and drawing the strip for a year. In 1938, Chic Young returned from his sabbatical, resuming his place as the main writer of ''Blondie''. Raymond continued to play a major role in creating the artwork, in addition to a short stint assisting his brother Alex on ''

Jungle Jim Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began on January 7, 1934, as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle ...

'' around 1944. In 1950, due to Chic's diminishing eyesight, Raymond permanently became the lead artist of ''Blondie'' and began to develop the distinctive style that the strip uses to this day. Chic Young died in 1973 and his son

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

, who had been assisting with the writing for about ten years, took over as head writer. Raymond continued as the artist and began sharing a byline credit with Dean soon after. Raymond's health began to fail in 1979, and he died in late 1981 from cancer. After his death, he was succeeded by

Mike Gersher Mike Gersher was formerly an artist on the Blondie comic strip. He started being credited as the head artist in late December 1981, after the death of the long serving Jim Raymond. Gersher had assisted Raymond for about seventeen years, origin ...

, who had assisted him for about 17 years. All ''Blondie'' artists since that time have stuck closely to the style that Jim Raymond refined, with small modifications to keep props and clothing styles contemporary.

References

External links

Lambiek: Jim Raymond
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond, Jim 1917 births 1981 deaths American comics artists American comic strip cartoonists Artists from New Rochelle, New York Deaths from cancer in Florida

Biography

References

Further reading

External links