Tom Wilson, Sr., who created the Ziggy comic strip in 1969, has died at 80 after a lengthy illness.  Universal UClick (formerly the Universal Press Syndicate), the syndicate that handles distribution of the Ziggy comic strip, issued a press release announcing that Wilson died on September 16th.  The protagonist of Wilson’s strip is a small, barefoot, bald Sad Sack who never seems to wear pants or avoid misfortune.

 

Wilson served as the creative director at greeting card powerhouse American Greetings for 35 years.  It was at American Greetings that published Wilson’s first Ziggy cartoon collection, When You’re Not Around, in 1969.  The Ziggy comic strip launched in 1971 with 15 papers, but is currently syndicated in more than 500 papers. Wilson’s son Tom Wilson, Jr. took over the comic strip in 1987.

 

In 1982 Ziggy made it to TV in a Christmas TV special Ziggy’s Gift, which featured the Harry Nilsson tune “Give, Love, Joy,” and won an Emmy Award. A Ziggy cartoon was featured prominently in a classic episode of Seinfeld in which Elaine Benes sells a cartoon of a pig at a complaint window with the ironic caption, “I Wish I Was Taller,” to The New Yorker.  Benes doesn’t realize that she has plagiarized the cartoon from Ziggy, but then Jerry shows her a new Ziggy cartoon with the pig at the complaint window once again saying “The New Yorker is stealing my ideas.”