By Jim Unger (Sheldon Press)
ISBN: 0-85969-481-X
Herman isn’t a person: Bear that in mind…
Jim Unger was born in London in 1927 and emigrated to Canada where he took up cartooning as a profession. Herman began in 1974 when he moved to Ottawa from Ontario. He won The National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award in 1982 and 1987. In 1984 he moved to the Bahamas and in 1992 he retired.
Constantly nagged by friends and fans, he came out of retirement in 1997, reviving Herman on a piecemeal basis and overseeing an updated release of the long-running strip. Co-founder of INTRACA, an intranet feature using humour and cartoons on work-place computers, he is a keen proponent of the electronic dissemination of cartoon art. In 1990 he made cartoon history when Herman was the first US strip syndicated in East Germany.
Impressive, no?
Irrelevant. Herman is a superbly dry and wonderfully drawn old-fashioned gag-panel that covers all the old familiar subjects with trenchant wit and a mean eye. It is one of the funniest strips ever created and always worth a look. This particular collection was just the one nearest to hand.
And Herman? That’s actually anybody in the strip on the day. We’ve all been a bit Herman at times.
© 1981 Universal Press Syndicate. © 1997 United Media. All Rights Reserved.