Cartoonist Jerry Bittle died way too young. He was only fifty three when a heart attack took his life in 2003. At the time, he had two comic strips in syndication; Geech and Shirley & Son.

Geech premiered in 1982. It focused on a rather large cast of peculiar characters in the small town of Grimace, Texas. Geech Dingum was a dim, lazy assistant mechanic who worked at Merle’s Service Station. If you think of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, you can envision the assortment of eccentrics that populated Grimace.

Shirley & Son, which debuted in 2000, was a sweet strip which examined the relationship of a divorced, single parent woman and her young son.

Both strips came to an end with the death of their creator.

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