Gerry Shamray – RIP

Cartoonist and illustrator Gerry Shamray has passed away.

From the moment Gerry Shamray got his first box of Crayola Crayons as a child, he’s been creating bright, colorful images and imaginative stories. The crayons may have been replaced by a Wacom tablet and mixed media but Gerry’s inventive imagination continues to be fresh and youthful.

From the obituary:

[Gerry] passed away unexpectedly on September 25, 2023 … Gerry was a member of the National Society of Illustrators. He was an American Comic Book artist known for his work on American Splendor and John Darling. Gerry was an adjunct professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

As will be noted Gerry’s most famous comic work was as an artist for Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor comic book (1979-2006) and for Tom Batiuk’s John Darling comic strip (1985-1989).

From Tom Batiuk:

The John Darling Trivia Teaser was the idea of Gerry Shamray, John Darling’s third and penultimate artist, and Gerry handled that aspect himself. I thought it was a nice solution for the “drop panels” that were sometimes eliminated if newspapers needed space and chose to run only the bottom two rows.

Other credits from Gerry’s LinkedIn page:

Gerry’s comic strip credits include

More about Gerry and art samplings at his homepage and at his Twitter/X and Facebook accounts.

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