Tom Wilson, Sr., American cartoonist (Ziggy), died at 80.

Thomas Albert Wilson better known as Tom Wilson, was an American cartoonist. Wilson was the creator of the comic strip Ziggy, which he drew from 1971 to 1987. The strip was then continued by his son, Tom Wilson, Jr.^[5]
Wilson served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955.^[1][6] He attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1955.^[1] He was a Cooper Union art instructor from 1961 to 1962.^[1][6]
Wilson's career began in 1950, doing advertisement layouts for Uniontown Newspapers, Inc.^[1][6] In 1955, he joined American Greetings (AG) as a designer, becoming Creative Director in 1957 and vice-president of creative development in 1978.^[1] While at AG, he developed the Soft Touch greeting card line.^[1] He also served as president of Those Characters From Cleveland, AG's character licensing subsidiary.^[1]

(August 1, 1931 – September 16, 2011)

Ziggy

The Ziggy comics panel, syn­di­cated by Universal Uclick (for­merly Univer­sal Press Syn­di­cate), launched in 15 news­pa­pers in June 1971. It expanded to appear in more than 500 daily and Sun­day news­pa­pers and has been fea­tured in bestselling books and cal­en­dars. Ziggy merchandising has included plaques, T-shirts, buttons, glass tumblers, lunch boxes, coffee mugs and greet­ing cards. In 2002, Ziggy became the official spokescharacter for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Through­out his career, Wil­son demon­strated a remark­able abil­ity to anticipate future trends in the mar­ket­place. A vet­eran of the licens­ing busi­ness, Wil­son headed up the cre­ative team that devel­oped such char­ac­ter licens­ing block­busters as Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears.
In 1987, Wil­son passed the Ziggy torch to his son, Tom Wil­son Jr., after the younger Wil­son had served as an assis­tant on the strip for many years.^[7] Even though Tom Sr. lived in Cleveland and Tom Jr. lived in Cincinnati, the two worked as a team, collaborating by fax and phone.
Wilson was a talented painter with works appearing in exhibitions throughout the United States, including the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Society of Illustrators annual show in New York.

Awards

He made his mark in animation with the 1982 Emmy Award-winning Christmas special, Ziggy's Gift, which was released on VHS video in 2002 and DVD in 2005.
He received the Purchase award in the Butler Institute of American Art's annual exhibition.^[1]
Wilson was a survivor of lung cancer.

Death

He died in his sleep on the night of September 16, 2011^[8] of pneu­mo­nia at a Cincin­nati hos­pi­tal. He was 80.^[7]

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