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George Baker (cartoonist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Baker (May 22, 1915 - May 5, 1975) was a former Disney Company cartoonist born in Lowell, Massachusetts, who became prominent during World War II as the creator of Sad Sack, a comic strip whose title character was a lowly private, experiencing some of the absurdities and humiliations of life in the United States Army. The strip, drawn in "pantomime" (without words), appeared in YANK magazine after George Baker joined the U.S. Army. His book of sketches titled Sad Sack was published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. in 1944.
At the end of the war, the U.S. Army created an advertising campaign with the phrase: "Don't be a Sad Sack, re-enlist in the Regular Army".
Nonetheless, George Baker himself was discharged from military service at the end of the War and returned to live in Los Angeles where he transformed the Sad Sack army cartoon into a syndicated comic strip and a long-lived comic book series aimed at younger readers.
While Baker gave the job of writing the comic narrative to others, he continued to illustrate the covers of Sad Sack comics until the time of his death. For a short time, there was a Sad Sack radio program in which Mel Blanc did the character's voice.
George Baker is buried at Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California.
- George Baker at Find-A-Grave