Gus Edson
Encyclopedia
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s, The Gumps
The Gumps
The Gumps, a popular comic strip about a middle-class family, was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917 until October 17, 1959....
and Dondi
Dondi
Dondi was a daily comic strip about a large-eyed war orphan of the same name. Created by Gus Edson and Irwin Hasen, it ran in more than 100 newspapers for three decades .-Interview:...
.
Born to Max and Emma Edson in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, Gus Edson dropped out of school at age 17 to join the Army, serving in Australia in 1918. After his discharge, he studied briefly at Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
and the Art Students League
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
. Edson was a sports cartoonist with the New York Evening Graphic
New York Graphic
The New York Evening Graphic was a tabloid newspaper published from 1924 to 1932 by Bernarr "Bodylove" Macfadden...
from 1925 to 1928, followed by a year with the Paul Block Chain of Newspapers and a year at the New York Evening Post.
Along with his freelance work, he was a standby ghost for King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
, eventually arriving at the Daily News as a sports cartoonist (1931-35). In 1933, while at the Daily News, he created his first daily comic strip, Streaky, which he wrote until 1935.
When Sidney Smith, creator of The Gumps, died suddenly in 1935, Edson took over Smith's strip. Two years later, there was a continuity problem, as noted in Editor & Publisher
Editor & Publisher
Editor & Publisher is a monthly magazine covering the North American newspaper industry. It is based in New York City. E&P calls itself "America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry" and describes itself on its website as "the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the North...
:
- Gus Edson, who has been carrying on the Andy Gump assignment, reported to his office at the Chicago Tribune-New York News SyndicateTribune Media ServicesTribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...
and found a mail stack of more than 100 letters waiting for him, all containing reminders, in one form or another, that the two principals in the current chapter of the Gump strip, who are planning marriage, have been wed before. When the artist contemplated marrying off Tom Carr and the Widow Zander, after the former had been released from prison, his staff reminded him that the couple had been married previously in the story of the strip some eight years ago and then had drifted apart when the Widow Zander's husband, believed to be dead, had returned. Edson's firm conviction that no one would remember the previous situation was rocked when he was faced with the mail-bag full of reminders.
Edson wrote and drew The Gumps for 24 years. His assistant on The Gumps in the early 1950s was the actor Martin Landau
Martin Landau
Martin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
. Cousin Juniper was a topper
Topper (comic strip)
A topper in comic strip parlance is a small secondary strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip. In the 1920s and 1930s, leading cartoonists were given full pages in the Sunday comics sections, allowing them to add smaller strips and single-panel cartoons to their page.Toppers usually were drawn...
strip which Edson also drew for his Sunday page
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
. Edson helped sell war bonds during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and he traveled around the world entertaining troops with his amusing chalk talk
Chalk talk
A chalk talk was a popular act in vaudeville. A performer used chalk on a blackboard to make changes in a drawing while delivering a monologue. Some performers would do caricatures of audience members. The term also was used to describe an act done with crayons...
s.
Radio
In March 1948, Edson was heard on ABC's America's Town Meeting of the AirAmerica's Town Meeting of the Air
America’s Town Meeting of the Air was a public affairs discussion broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1956, mainly on the NBC Blue Network and its successor, ABC Radio...
. During the discussion "What's Wrong with Comics?", Edson questioned panelist John Mason Brown
John Mason Brown
John Mason Brown was an American drama critic and author.Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he graduated from Harvard College in 1923. He worked for the New York Evening Post from 1929 to 1941. He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War II, beginning in 1942...
, challenging Brown's negative notions about comic strips.
Dondi
In the early 1950s, Edson was one of several National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
members who participated in European USO Tours. After a visit to Germany, he created Dondi in 1955 with Irwin Hasen
Irwin Hasen
Irwin Hasen is an American cartoonist, best known as the co-creator of the Dondi comic strip.-Early life:...
. In 1957, Edson recalled the origin of the strip:
- My search for the perfect collaborator came to a sudden and successful conclusion on a lovely May morning in 1954, in storybook Heidelberg. How clearly its details pierce the dimming mists of time! I was at breakfast with a diminutive artist, name of Hasen. Casually I remarked on the excellence of our Spiegel Eier. He wept. My interest was piqued. "Why do you weep?" I inquired. "Because the Spiegel Eier tastes so good," he simpered. That was all. But it was everything! Here indeed was the understanding heart for which I would have combed the world!... One more date in the saga of our collaboration fell on September 26, 1955. An important executive named Moe Reilly gave Dondi a job. "How's he doing?" you ask. Modesty forces me to admit that the kid is getting along so well that Hasen and I are now living the life of Reilly. In case you care, this is how we collaborate. I lock myself in a small-type room (you know where). Two days later, I stagger out with a whole roll— er, ream of scribbling. These brain squeezings I then boil down into the written material for six daily strips and a Sunday page. Since I can't typewrite, I prepare two clean longhand copies, one of which I relay to Hasen. He takes it from there (and beautifully!). The other copy goes to editor Moe Reilly. Once a month, Hasen, Moe Reilly and I have food and beverages together to discuss Dondi's future plights. We enjoy these bacchanalian revels very much because the Syndicate pays for them.
In 1961, Edson scripted the Dondi film adaptation, and he also wrote a proposed sequel, The Carnival Kid.
Edson was a member of the Society of Illustrators
Society of Illustrators
The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. Founded in 1901, the mission of the Society is to promote the art and appreciation of illustration, as well as its history...
, the National Cartoonists Society and the Writer’s Guild of America.
Books
Edson's strips were collected in several books, including Andy Gump in Radioland (1937) and The Gumps (1952). Whitman Publishing collected his Streaky strips in the 158-page book, Streaky and the Football Signals.Awards
In addition to his savings bond drives, Edson volunteered for various causes and fundraising campaigns. The Treasury Department recognized his efforts by awarding him a Distinguished Service Award in 1954.During the 1940s, Edson lived on Brookside Road in Darien, Connecticut
Darien, Connecticut
Darien is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. A relatively small community on Connecticut's "Gold Coast", the population was 20,732 at the 2010 census. Darien was listed at #9 at CNN Money's list of "top-earning towns" in the United States as of 2011...
. He later moved to 149 Weed Avenue in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
, home to several cartoonists, including Ernie Bushmiller
Ernie Bushmiller
Ernest Paul Bushmiller, Jr. was an American cartoonist, best known for creating the long-running daily comic strip Nancy....
, Alex Raymond
Alex Raymond
Alexander Gillespie "Alex" Raymond was an American cartoonist, best known for creating Flash Gordon for King Features in 1934...
and Mort Walker
Mort Walker
Addison Morton Walker , popularly known as Mort Walker, is an American comic artist best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He has signed Addison to some of his strips.Born in El Dorado, Kansas, he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri...
. In Stamford, Edson helped raise money for community groups.
He died of heart failure September 27, 1966 in Stamford.
Gus Edson Park
Gus Edson Park is located between Weed Avenue and Holly Pond. In recent years, Sharon Slocum and the Cove Neighborhood Association launched a beautification and refurbishing of this park. Edson was honored by a plaque in the park, a reminder of his close ties with the group of poker pals in the Stamford Police department. The plaque reads:- Gus Edson Lookout dedicated to "friend of the cop" Stamford Police Assn.
Etched into the surface of the plaque is a portrait of Edson with Dondi and Andy Gump. In 1997, Edson's home at 149 Weed Ave. was torn down to make space for a small housing development.
Edson's son is the poet-novelist Russell Edson
Russell Edson
Russell Edson is an American poet, novelist, writer and illustrator, and the son of the cartoonist-screenwriter Gus Edson....
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