George Sixta

George Sixta (March 13, 1909 - January 7, 1986) was an American cartoonist, best known for his syndicated comic strip, Rivets, about a wire-haired terrier. It was syndicated by Field Enterprises and its successor, News America Syndicate.

Born in Chicago, Sixta's art education was at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and he started his career at age 20 with the Chicago Sun-Times where he did illustrations and sports cartoons. His syndicated strip Dick Draper, Foreign Correspondent began when he joined the Navy in 1941.

Rivets

Holding down a desk job in the Navy, Sixta got the idea for Rivets when he saw many photos of Navy mascots. Rivets first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1944 and was syndicated from 1953 to 1985. Initially a Navy mascot, the friendly family dog lived with three children, Jamie, Virginia and Steve.

Merchandising of Rivets included magic slates, dolls and coloring books. The strip was collected in Rivets: A Cartoon Book, published by Saalfield in the 1960s.

Hit or Miss

Sixta also drew two newspaper features, One for the Book and the sports humor cartoon series Hit or Miss, which ran from November 1, 1948 to January 9, 1954. Hit or Miss featured the character Louella, as noted by comics historian Allan Holtz:

Sixta's Hit or Miss was the sort of feature that just sort of makes you shrug. It was workmanlike but never memorable. Sixta tried to inject a little more personality into the feature by adding the recurring character Louella, a big-boned, rather dim sports enthusiast. Presumably a Rubenesque gal who liked sports was supposed to be ludicrous... guess George never saw any roller derby. Louella appeared twice a week, with special billing in the panel, through much of the run.^[1]

In 1944, Sixta married Jean Edwards of Sierra Madre, California, and they lived with their three children in Elmhurst, Illinois. In 1986, Sixta died in Laguna Hills, California, at the age of 76.

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