Gil Thorp

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title: "Gil Thorp" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-comic-strips", "1958-comics-debuts", "american-football-comics", "baseball-comics", "basketball-comics", "drama-comics", "slice-of-life-comics", "fictional-schoolteachers", "american-comics-characters", "fictional-american-people", "male-characters-in-comics", "comics-characters-introduced-in-1958", "comics-set-in-the-united-states", "comic-strips-syndicated-by-tribune-content-agency", "gocomics", "sports-comics"] description: "American comic strip" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Thorp" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American comic strip ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox comic strip"]

Field	Value
title	Gil Thorp
image	[[File:Gil Thorp 2011-10-17.gif
caption	Gil Thorp coaching a Milford football player
author	Jack Berrill (creator)
Jerry Jenkins (1996–2004)
Neal Rubin (2004–2022)
Henry Barajas (2022–present)
illustrator	Jack Berrill (creator)
Warren Sattler
Frank Bolle
Ray Burns
Frank McLaughlin
Rod Whigham
Rachel Merrill
url	gocomics.com/gilthorp
status	Running
first	September 8, 1958
syndicate	Tribune Content Agency
genre	Sports
::

| title = Gil Thorp | image = [[File:Gil Thorp 2011-10-17.gif|240px]] | caption = Gil Thorp coaching a Milford football player | author = Jack Berrill (creator) Jerry Jenkins (1996–2004) Neal Rubin (2004–2022) Henry Barajas (2022–present) | illustrator = Jack Berrill (creator) Warren Sattler Frank Bolle Ray Burns Frank McLaughlin Rod Whigham Rachel Merrill | url = gocomics.com/gilthorp | status = Running | first = September 8, 1958 | last = | altnames = | syndicate = Tribune Content Agency | genre = Sports

Gil Thorp is a sports-oriented comic strip which has been published since September 8, 1958. The main character, Gil Thorp, is the athletic director of Milford High School and coaches the football, basketball, and baseball teams. In addition to the sports storylines, the strip also deals with issues facing teenagers such as teen pregnancy, steroids, and drug abuse.

History

The strip was created by Jack Berrill, who modeled and named Thorp after baseball player Gil Hodges and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe. The setting of Milford is named for New Milford, Connecticut when he began writing the strip. Berrill continued the strip until he died of cancer on March 14, 1996. Over the course of his 38 years, Berrill broke ground with many of his stories, often dealing with sensitive social issues of the day. As editorial standards relaxed, he was able to move from stories about jalopies and after-school jobs to topics like teen pregnancy, divorce, steroids, and sexual harassment.

When the Denver Post had a problem getting a week's worth of strips, the newspaper received over 30,000 calls.

Writers

Upon Berrill's death, Tribune Media Services chose author Jerry Jenkins (co-author of the Left Behind novels) to take over writing the strip. Jenkins had been in discussions with TMS about expanding previous Gil Thorp stories into a series of youth novels and was a logical replacement. Many of Jenkins' stories were written uncredited by his son Chad Jenkins, a baseball coach at Bethel College. The Jenkins stories discussed overtly religious topics which had not appeared in the strip before, including an Orthodox Jewish football player and a 15-year-old pregnant girl whom Thorp talks out of getting an abortion.

In 2004, Jenkins was followed as writer by Detroit News columnist Neal Rubin.

In 2022, the Tribune Content Agency announced that graphic novel writer Henry Barajas would take over authorship of the strip beginning in July of that year.

Artists

The strip was drawn by Berrill from 1958–1993 until glaucoma forced him to turn the reins over to his Connecticut Cartoonist Associate colleague Warren Sattler. Later, Frank Bolle took over, followed by Ray Burns. Frank McLaughlin took over following Burns' death in 2000. On February 18, 2008, Apartment 3G artist Frank Bolle again took over art chores for Gil Thorp on an interim basis. Rod Whigham became the permanent artist two months later. Starting September 30, 2024 Rachel Merrill became the artist for Gil Thorp.

The Bucket

The Bucket was an online forum hosted by the Chicago Tribune, named after the teen burger hangout in the strip, The Bucket. It was a lively site for 15 years and featured discussions about the strip and other topics. Members of the community were known as "Bucketeers".

References

References

1. "Ray Burns - Lambiek Comiclopedia".
2. "Rod Whigham - Lambiek Comiclopedia".
3. "Gil Thorp comics by Neal Rubin and Rod Whigham".
4. Jacobson, David. (September 8, 1993). "True Fans Follow Every Pitch from 'Gil Thorp'". [[Hartford Courant]].
5. (September 12, 2024). "Gil Thorp comic strip welcomes Rachel Merrill as new artist".
6. Miner, Michael. (February 5, 1998). "Good Sports, Bad Sports". [[Chicago Reader]].
7. Miner, Michael. (April 17, 2003). "Gil Thorp Gets Benched". [[Chicago Reader]].
8. Fleishman, Daniel. (August 28, 2001). "Who Was That Yarmulke-topped Man? 'Gil Thorp' Strip Gets Sabbath-observant Character". [[Jewish World Review]].
9. (April 17, 2004). "Rubin Debut Ends "Passion of Gil Thorp"". The Comics Reporter.
10. (March 3, 2008). "New Artist Set to Take Over ''Gil Thorp'' Strip". [[Chicago Tribune]].
11. Downey, Mike. (September 7, 2008). "Timeless classic Gil Thorp looks at life on and off the fields of play". [[Chicago Tribune]].
12. (June 29, 2022). "Welcome to the team! Gil Thorp comic strip welcomes new author Henry Barajas".

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