Tom Forman (May 2, 1936 – May 18, 1996) 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 ...

cartoonist. 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 ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, he graduated with a

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

in government from

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degree programs, 122 m ...

. 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 (comics), Tom Forman with satirical social commentary. With readership spread among 250 newspapers in the United States alone, the comic strip acquired a hi ...

'' along with

Ben Templeton Ben Templeton (born c. 1940) is the co-creator of the classic comic strip ''Motley's Crew'' along with his late partner Tom Forman (comics), Tom Forman. After the death of his partner, Templeton completed the strip on its own until its cancellat ...

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

blue-collar worker A blue-collar worker is a person who performs manual labour, manual labor or Tradesman, skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, retail, Warehouse, warehousing, mining, ...

, 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, after the unrelated ''Los Angeles Times'', and the flagship newspaper of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado ...

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