Tom Wilson (1931–2011,) fully Thomas Albert Wilson, was an American cartoonist. He was the creator of the rotund comic-strip character Ziggy.
Born in Grant Town, West Virginia, Wilson studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, landed his first job as a newspaper layout artist. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he started working at the greeting-card company American Greetings in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1955. Wilson spent the next 35 years at American Greetings and rose to become its creative director.
Wilson’s short, bald, big-nosed, barefoot character that became Ziggy first appeared in a series of uncaptioned sketches that Wilson collected in the pocket-sized book When You’re Not Around (1969.)
Wilson’s Ziggy strip made its début in 1971 in 15 newspapers. It soon started appearing in more than 500 papers and became a pop culture phenomenon. Ziggy (along with his cat Sid and dog Fuzz) appeared in numerous cartoon collections, gift books, and calendars, and was the subject of the Emmy-winning TV Christmas special Ziggy’s Gift (1982.)
Wilson’s son Tom Wilson Jr. has been drawing the strip since 1987.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Tom Wilson
Honesty is the best image.
—Tom Wilson
Topics: Honesty
About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you’re fighting temptation.
—Tom Wilson
Topics: Temptation, Self-Control
You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.
—Tom Wilson
I try not to worry about the future—so I take each day just one anxiety attack at a time
—Tom Wilson
Topics: Worry
A waist is a terrible thing to mind.
—Tom Wilson
Topics: Diet, Weight
Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
—Tom Wilson
Topics: Age, Wisdom, Just for Fun, Aging
Many of us are more capable than some of us … but none of us is as capable as all of us!.
—Tom Wilson
Topics: Teamwork
I think in our own heads we’re never all that confident. I’m not.
—Tom Wilson
How come “fat chance” and “slim chance” mean the same thing?
—Tom Wilson
Topics: Chance
You can complain that roses have thorns; or rejoice that thorns have roses.
—Tom Wilson
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Nikki Giovanni American Poet, Writer
John Wayne American Actor
Walt Disney American Entrepreneur
Hank Ketcham American Cartoonist
Charles M. Schulz American Cartoonist
Sandra Boynton American Humorist
Ashleigh Brilliant British Cartoonist
Lynda Barry American Cartoonist
Steve Stiles American Cartoonist
Don Herold American Humorist