Gus Edson

Gus Edson was an American cartoonist best known for his long runs on the comic strips *The Gumps* and *Dondi*. Born Gus Edelstein on September 20, 1901, in New York City, he began his career in the 1920s as a sports cartoonist and later worked as a commercial artist. His big break came in 1935 when he took over writing and drawing *The Gumps*, the pioneering domestic strip created by Sidney Smith, which Edson shepherded for over three decades. During the 1940s and 1950s, he also contributed to comic books, notably on titles like *Family Favourites*, *Popular Comics*, and *Four Color*, where he often handled art, inks, letters, and writing. In 1955, with writer Irwin Hasen, Edson co-created *Dondi*, a strip about a war orphan that ran for decades. His style was clean, expressive, and rooted in classic newspaper cartooning. Edson died on September 26, 1966, in Stamford, Connecticut, just days after his 65th birthday. He received the National Cartoonists Society’s Silver T-Square Award in 1966 for his contributions to the field.