Gary Dumm: Biography

Gary Dumm was born in Cleveland, Ohio, went to public school and also Catholic schools there, including graduating from St. Joseph High School. He received an Associate In Arts degree from Cuyahoga Community College studying art with teachers Gerald Kramer and David Haberman.

His mother used comic books to help teach him to read as a child, and he still loves the juxtaposition of words and pictures in his solo and collaborative work. His first job was with Graphic Arts Coordinators where he learned sign making, silk-screening and graphic design fundamentals. During college he began doing cartoons and illustrations for the newspaper there, and afterwards continued making them for Cleveland’s “alternative”newspapers.

In 1975 he met Cleveland’s “master of the mundane”, writer Harvey Pekar and began a 30 year association with him, drawing comics art for his ground-breaking autobiographical comic book “American Splendor”, and later doing promotional materials for the movie of the same name (2003), which appeared in Entertainment Weekly,the N.Y. Times, Le Monde and many other publications. In between he worked on other comic book titles, did illustrations for many book covers (1982 - 2000) published by Bowling Green University’s “Popular Press,” more for Northern Ohio Live magazine and taught cartooning and typography at the Virginia Marti College of Fashion & Design.

From 2003 on he wrote and drew a series of cartoon/bios of Blues personalities for Music Maker Rag magazine, numerous cartoon illustrations for Weingart Design’s brochures from 2000 on, and illustrations for independent Cleve-land newspapers the Free Times and Scene magazine (2006), as well as a few illustrations for the Cleveland PlainDealer and Cleveland Magazine.

Dumm later worked on illustrating (in black and white) several graphic novels including “Our Movie Year” and“Ego & Hubris” written by Harvey Pekar, “The Beats” and “SDS, A Graphic History” by Paul Buhle & Pekar, and“Zombie Moon” and “Life Of The Dead” written by Tim Bennett and himself. Whenever these projects called for color, his wife and team-mate, Laura Dumm added inspired digital color. Additional published efforts in book form included illustrations for “Yiddishkeit” and “Robin Hood” (2011) and “Radical Jesus” (with color by Laura)from Herald Press in 2013. In 2014 he drew the chapter (again with Laura coloring) about ‘would-be’ cartoonistHugh Hefner in Monte Beauchamp’s cartoon/bio book of famous cartoonists entitled “Masterful Marks” fromSimon & Schuster.

For a change of pace in 2011 he started doing public art for Cleveland’s St. Clair/Superior Development Corporation’s “Year of the...”Rabbit” painted sculpture project. He continued in 2012 by painting a sculpture for the “Year of the Dragon.” These sculptures were both a mental and physical challenge (painting a large, three-dimensional object) and ultimately very satisfying in viewing them in a public space with “public” reaction.But the painted sculptures were dwarfed by the collaborative creation of Gary and Laura’s “Our Love Letter toCleveland” mural. They wanted to pay homage to Cleveland by honoring the people, places and things that makeCleveland great with a large scale mural (8’ x 60+’) unveiled in September 2013. This project was funded by receiving a 2013 Creative Workforce Fellowship grant and was installed close to Cleveland’s historic West SideMarket where it brightened the area until winter weather tore part of it down. A new iteration of the mural was installed on the third floor of the Michael Schwartz library inside Cleveland State University in the summer of2019.

He began working with author Scott MacGregor on a 300 page graphic novel “Fire On The Water” in 2011 that eventually was self-published in 2017, partially financed by another CPAC Fellowship grant that Scott received that year (2011). This project, a fiction-based-on-fact tale set in Cleveland in 1916, related a story of family, civil and workers’ rights and the tragedies that befell the immigrants who labored beneath Lake Erie, risking life and limb, to bring fresh water to the city of Cleveland. This book was picked up by prestigious Abrams Comic Arts publishing and re-released with a new cover and tweaked artwork in spring, 2020.After a diagnosis, surgery, treatment and recovery from throat cancer in 2014, he started another collaboration with his wife Laura on a series of large pop/surrealist paintings about the environment and other important social concerns. Gary says about their method: “I come up with the concept and start sketching...we both discuss the idea/s and the painting develops into a final drawing that is transferred onto the canvas. Then Laura paints, making changes along the way. We feel that this series is some of the best work (collaborative or solo) that we have done to date.”