Sol Hess (October 14, 1872 – December 31, 1941) was a comic strip writer best known for creating the long-run strip The Nebbs with animation artist Wallace Carlson. Born on an Illinois farm, Hess moved with his parents to Chicago, where a short time later, his father died. He took a job as a traveling salesman for a wholesale jewelry company and became a successful jeweler with Rettif, Hess & Madsen, a prominent firm. The company office was located near the Chicago Tribune, and Hess became friendly with the Tribune journalists and comic strip cartoonists. He entered the comics field as an amateur writer, receiving no pay for the gags he supplied to the cartoonists. Sidney Smith created The Gumps in 1917, and two years later, he started using Hess' dialogue and ideas. The Nebbs In 1922, after Smith signed a million-dollar contract ($100,000 per year for ten years), Hess felt he was due a significant share as writer. When Smith offered him only $100 a week, a bitter Hess decided to create his own comic strip, earning $800 a week after he teamed with cartoonist Carlson to launch The Nebbs on May 22, 1923. Carlson had been animating The Gumps for John Randolph Bray in 1919, and while the series was not successful, it brought Carlson in contact with Hess, and the two struck up a friendship. Carlson's career as animator ended with his last Gumps short, Fatherly Love (1921). The Nebbs closely paralleled The Gumps, although the character of Junior Nebb bore a strong resemblance to an earlier Carlson character, Dreamy Dud. With a situation and characters not unlike The Gumps, the strip caught on with readers and quickly became popular, enabling Hess to leave the jewelry business in 1925. Comics historian Don Markstein described the characters: Even the name was Gumps-like. "Gump" was a word Tribune Syndicate chief Joseph M. Patterson used for a member of the Unwashed Masses. The name Nebb was short for "nebbish", a Yiddish word for the sort of person who doesn't stand out in any way. Dad Rudy (no relation) wasn't a loser type, but he did think more highly of himself than an objective observer would be likely to do. Mom Fanny was a typical domestic type, the family power center but in a low-key way. Young son Junior was a lot like Chester Gump, but he did have an occasional