Jim Raymond

Jim Raymond (1917–1981) was a comic strip artist and the younger brother of Flash Gordon artist Alex Raymond. He was also the great-uncle of actors Matt Dillon and Kevin Dillon.

Biography

Born in New Rochelle, New York, Raymond's first cartoons were published in his high school newspaper. In 1935, he started as an assistant on the Blondie comic strip, mostly as a replacement for his brother, who had been working on Blondie for three years before leaving to start his own strips.

Initially, Raymond's responsibilities were quite minor, but by 1937, when the first son of Blondie creator Chic Young died of jaundice, Raymond was considered experienced enough to take over both writing and drawing the strip for a year.

In 1938, Chic Young returned from his sabbatical, resuming his place as the main writer of Blondie. Raymond continued to play a major role in creating the artwork, in addition to a short stint assisting his brother Alex on Jungle Jim around 1944. In 1950, due to Chic's diminishing eyesight, Raymond permanently became the lead artist of Blondie and began to develop the distinctive style that the strip uses to this day.