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a typical domestic type, the family power center but in a low-key way. Young son Junior was a lot like
Chester Gump, but he did have an occasional fabulous adventure, such as joining a circus and touring with them for months. Teenage daughter Betsy, a typical young woman of the flapper era, was the only one who didn't have an analog in the other strip. Despite its similarity to an established property,
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In 1922, after Smith signed a million-dollar contract ($ 100,000 per year for ten years), Hess felt he was due a significant share as writer. When Smith offered him only $ 100 a week, a bitter Hess decided to create his own comic strip, earning $ 800 a week after he teamed with cartoonist
Carlson to
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Where does he get his ideas? From life, he said, and for that reason he must be very observing at all times to see the little things that happen at home, on the streets, among his friends, that may be incorporated into a strip of Nebbs. "The characters! Oh, they are entirely imaginary," he declared.
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used for a member of the
Unwashed Masses. The name Nebb was short for "nebbish", a Yiddish word for the sort of person who doesn't stand out in any way. Dad Rudy (no relation) wasn't a loser type, but he did think more highly of himself than an objective observer would be likely to do. Mom Fanny was
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Born on an
Illinois farm, Hess moved with his parents to Chicago, where a short time later, his father died. He took a job as a traveling salesman for a wholesale jewelry company and became a successful jeweler with Rettif, Hess & Madsen, a prominent firm. The company office was located near the
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in 1919, and while the series was not successful, it brought
Carlson in contact with Hess, and the two struck up a friendship. Carlson's career as animator ended with his last
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Associated Press, “Sol Hess, Creator Of ‘The Nebbs’, Dies”, The San
Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday 1 January 1942, Volume 48, page 1.
152:. There were a few Big Little Books in the 1930s, a short-lived radio show in the mid-'40s, and not much else in the way of merchandising or media spin-offs.
112:, although the character of Junior Nebb bore a strong resemblance to an earlier Carlson character, Dreamy Dud. With a situation and characters not unlike
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caught on and appeared in about 500 papers. In fact, it was in most of the Hearst papers, despite being distributed by a rival of Hearst's
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as Rudy Nebbs and
Kathleen Lockhart as Fanny Nebbs. Others in the cast were Ruth Perrott, Francis "Dink" Trout and Dick Ryan.
116:, the strip caught on with readers and quickly became popular, enabling Hess to leave the jewelry business in 1925.
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161:"I haven't taken them from life at all. It is just the things that they do that are little glimpses of real life."
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He entered the comics field as an amateur writer, receiving no pay for the gags he supplied to the cartoonists.
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were taken over by his daughter, Betsy Hess, and her husband, Stanley Baer. They ran another strip called
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Hess died at his apartment at the
Shoreland Hotel, in Chicago, of a heart attack, on December 31, 1941.
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Interviewed in 1929, Hess talked about his characters and finding humor in real-life situations:
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comic book (1945). Through
Chicago's Artists and Creators Guild, Hess issued a
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Bridge
Scorepad in 1932. Other merchandising included bisque statuettes and a
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in 1941, and four years later, Croydon Publishing printed a single issue of
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in 1917, and two years later, he started using Hess' dialogue and ideas.
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had been folded into the newer comic as subsidiary characters.
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radio series aired on Sunday afternoons. It featured
34:(October 14, 1872 – December 31, 1941) was a
38:writer best known for creating the long-run strip
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88:on May 22, 1923. Carlson had been animating
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226:With Hess' death in 1941, the scripts for
16:Not to be confused with typeface designer
60:journalists and comic strip cartoonists.
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327:from the original on August 17, 2015.
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304:Yesterday's Papers: "Sidney Smith".
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177:into a 1928 book. Dell published
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321:Don Markstein's Toonopedia
206:Mutual Broadcasting System
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131:-like. "Gump" was a word
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365:American comics writers
146:King Features Syndicate
42:with animation artist
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339:, January 19, 1929.
137:Joseph M. Patterson
108:closely paralleled
283:, Macmillan, 1947.
171:Cupples & Leon
127:Even the name was
94:John Randolph Bray
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293:Lambiek: Sol Hess
232:The Toodle Family
221:The Toodle Family
133:Tribune Syndicate
119:Comics historian
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375:1941 deaths
370:1872 births
36:comic strip
359:Categories
281:The Comics
264:References
182:comic book
173:collected
316:The Nebbs
236:The Nebbs
228:The Nebbs
210:The Nebbs
208:in 1945,
186:The Nebbs
179:The Nebbs
175:The Nebbs
150:The Gumps
142:The Nebbs
114:The Gumps
110:The Gumps
106:The Nebbs
90:The Gumps
86:The Nebbs
78:The Nebbs
70:The Gumps
40:The Nebbs
325:Archived
250:See also
166:Reprints
104:(1921).
67:created
32:Sol Hess
18:Sol Hess
100:short,
84:launch
58:Tribune
135:chief
242:Death
200:Radio
194:Nebbs
190:Nebbs
129:Gumps
98:Gumps
92:for
319:at
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272:^
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