Wally Bishop
Wallace Bond Bishop, better known as Wally Bishop, was an American cartoonist who drew his syndicated Muggs and Skeeter comic strip for 47 years.
Biography
Born in Normal, Illinois, he grew up in Bloomington, Illinois, where he spent a summer working as a newspaper copy boy. He studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He was awarded a contract with King Features Syndicate at age 19.In 1927, influenced by The Gumps creator Sidney Smith, Bishop began his comic strip Muggs McGinnis at the age of 22. In 1928, he visited St. Petersburg, Florida, and he later moved there from New York. He married Louise Carson in Evansville, Indiana, in 1936, the same year his strip was retitled Muggs and Skeeter.
In 1938, the Bishops bought and restored St. Petersburg developer C. Perry Snell's historic Italianate villa at 375 Brightwaters Boulevard in St. Petersburg. Their nearby neighbor was cartoonist Billy DeBeck, who lived within walking distance at 321 Brightwaters Boulevard on Coffee Pot Bayou.
During World War II, Bishop was a Coast Guard pilot, and he later transferred to the Navy, serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, leaving the service as a lieutenant commander.
Bishop sometimes performed as a drummer. He also emceed charity and benefit shows and gave chalk talks.
Bishop was a fellow of London's Royal Academy of Arts. He helped found the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, and was a member of the National Cartoonists Society and Sigma Delta Chi.
Bishop continued to draw Muggs and Skeeter until 1974, when he retired.