Robert Sidney Smith, known as Sidney Smith, was the creator of the influential comic strip The Gumps, based on an idea by Captain Joseph M. Patterson, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune.
Portrait circa 1912
Sidney Smith surrounded by letters received in 1929 after he killed The Gumps' Mary Gold, the first character to die in a continuity comic strip
Sidney Smith's The Gumps (March 8, 1925)
Smith's grave at Rosehill Cemetery
The Gumps is an American comic strip about a middle-class family. It was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917, until October 17, 1959.
Sidney Smith's The Gumps (September 30, 1923)
Sidney Smith's The Gumps (February 12, 1917).
Sidney Smith's The Gumps (1926)
Comic strip within a strip: Min reads The Gumps in Gus Edson's The Gumps page with Edson's Cousin Juniper strip at bottom (January 23, 1955).