The Gumps
The Gumps is the most famous of the American comic book illustrator Sidney Smith. The daily strip, which for the first time in the U.S. comic story one person died, was published from 1917 until 1959. Moreover, The Gumps is one of the first comic strips that appeared as a serial story.
Action
At the center of the middle-class family with father Andy Gump is, trying all possible ways to get rich. He is assisted by his wife Min ( abbreviation for Minerva ) and their son Chester. This family includes as well a cat named Hope and a dog named Buck. The rich uncle Bim counts just as the maid Tilda also to the family. The minor character Mary Smith in 1929, gold was dying. Initially, the strips were designed so that they ended each day with a joke and were completed. In the course of the series Smith changed its concept and introduced a continuous action. The Gumps This is one of the first comic strips that appeared as a continuation ..
Publication and draftsman
At the suggestion of his publisher Joseph Medill Patterson cartoonist Sidney Smith ended his appearing in the Chicago Tribune Strip Old Doc Yak as a daily strip in February 1917, by letting the characters out of the house, which represented the center of action, move out. On February 12, 1917 Smith made the middle-class family Gump move into the same house. The Strip to the Gump family was in the same place to find in the newspaper as before the Strip Old Doc Yak. The first Sunday page of The Gumps was published on 29 June 1919.
Smith was temporarily supported in its work by Stanley J. Link, Harold Gray, 1921 to 1924 took over the lettering, and Sol Hess. When Smith died in a traffic accident, was determined to be his successor, Gus Edson Patterson. This temporarily assisted the later actor Martin Landau and Ray Bailey.
The last strip of The Gumps was released on 17 October 1959.
From The Gumps numerous animated films were made, especially in the 1920s. In addition, there was in the 1920s numerous accompanying merchandising products.
Reception
According to Andreas C. Knigge Smith The Gumps made " the first real soap opera of the comics and the most successful series of the twenties ." Harald Havas sees in The Gumps also the most successful comic strip of the 1920s.