Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Wood Chips #38: The comic strip Christmas party and the real-life Andy Gump
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Wally Wood documented "The Comic Strip Characters Christmas Party" in Mad #68 (January 1962). Rex Morgan M.D. tells Dick Tracy about surgery on chinless Andy Gump. Morgan refers to the entire Gump family, a curious gag line since the others, apart from Andy, did have chins.
Ironically, there was a real-life Andy Gump who had surgery. This was Andy Wheat, born in 1890 in Bay St, Louis, Mississippi. He had an infected tooth that led to the removal of his entire lower jaw. After cartoonist Sidney Smith met Wheat through his brother, Dr. Thomas Smith, a dentist in Bloomington, Illinois, he decided to use Wheat as the basis for a comic strip character. Wheat was 27 when The Gumps debuted in newspapers in 1917. Later, he legally changed his name to Andy Gump. Note that he is dressed like Andy Gump in the photo below.
The word "gump" was introduced by James Russell Lowell in The Biglow Papers (1848).
Wally Wood documented "The Comic Strip Characters Christmas Party" in Mad #68 (January 1962). Rex Morgan M.D. tells Dick Tracy about surgery on chinless Andy Gump. Morgan refers to the entire Gump family, a curious gag line since the others, apart from Andy, did have chins.
Ironically, there was a real-life Andy Gump who had surgery. This was Andy Wheat, born in 1890 in Bay St, Louis, Mississippi. He had an infected tooth that led to the removal of his entire lower jaw. After cartoonist Sidney Smith met Wheat through his brother, Dr. Thomas Smith, a dentist in Bloomington, Illinois, he decided to use Wheat as the basis for a comic strip character. Wheat was 27 when The Gumps debuted in newspapers in 1917. Later, he legally changed his name to Andy Gump. Note that he is dressed like Andy Gump in the photo below.
The word "gump" was introduced by James Russell Lowell in The Biglow Papers (1848).
February 12, 1917
May 31, 1924
Labels: gumps, wood, wood chips
¶ 8:08 AM
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Bhob, It could be by the rest of the Gump family Dr. Morgan means blood relatives. Uncle Bim doesn't have a chin either. Chester must take after Min.
Patrick Ford
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Patrick Ford
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