Зигги: Американдық комикстер тарихы

American comic strip by Tom Wilson

Ziggy is an American cartoon series about an eponymous character who suffers an endless stream of misfortunes and sad but sympathetic daily events. It was created by Tom Wilson, a former American Greetings executive, and distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication. In 1987, his son Tom Wilson II took over writing and drawing the comic strip.

Ziggy, nameless at his conception, has been visible in some form or another since the mid 1960s. Greeting card writer Tom Wilson first drew a Ziggy like character as an elevator operator offering political commentary in editorial cartoons, but no one would syndicate it. Ziggy eventually appeared in an American Greetings gift book, When You're Not Around (1968) which caught the eye of Kathleen Andrews, a founder of the fledgling startup Universal Press Syndicate, which badly needed a popular comic to keep it afloat. A deal was struck, a name was given, and Ziggy was born. The strip began in 15 newspapers in June 1971, and that number eventually grew to over 600 publications. A Sunday strip premiered on April 1, 1973. In 1987, after years of preparation, the strip was taken over by Tom Wilson's son, Tom Wilson II. Tom Wilson I died on September 16, 2011, at the age of 80. His son continues to produce the strip as of 2022.

The animated 1982 Christmas television special Ziggy's Gift, which contained the Harry Nilsson song "Give, Love, Joy", won an Emmy Award. The following year, the special's animator, Richard Williams, also created a series of short vignettes featuring Ziggy. The actor who supplies Ziggy's voice is uncredited, but it is believed to be Williams himself. In 2002, Ziggy became the official spokescharacter for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.