Dwyer, Bil

Bil Dwyer was an American cartoonist. Dwyer worked at the Columbus Dispatch with Milton Caniff. Dwyer left for New York and sold gag cartoons to publications such as College Humor and Collier’s .

Both Dwyer and Caniff ended up working at the King Features Syndicate and Dwyer was appointed to take over the Dumb Dora strip from Paul Fung in 1932. According to Milton Caniff in the book Milton Caniff: Conversations, during the first few months of Dwyer's new assignment, Dwyer who was accustomed to creating single panels struggled to get the daily strips finished. Caniff assisted Dwyer by ghosting the female characters and completing some of the inking in addition to his regular duties.

Dumb Dora was cancelled in 1936 and in 1951 Dwyer created the short lived strip, Sandy Hill . The Register and Tribune Services distributed Sandy Hill until 1954. In the 1970s Dwyer formed the Merry Mountaineers publishing company and illustrated humorous booklets about Southern and Appalachian culture with titles such as the Dictionary for Yankees and Other Uneducated People and Southern Appalachian Mountain Cookin' .

From the guide to the Bil Dwyer Cartoons, 1932-1933, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)