Irving Walter Phillips (November 29, 1904 – October 28, 2000) was a noted American cartoonist, playwright, television scriptwriter, author, illustrator and educator.

[2] Phillips scripted for motion pictures, including Song of the Open Road (1944), which featured the film debut of Jane Powell.

[4] Phillips provided scripts and animation art for the American Broadcasting Company children's program Curiosity Shop (1971).

Mum was described as a "bystander on life's outer limits," and the feature's anything-can-happen humor is cited as paving the way for such later strips as Herman, The Far Side, Rhymes With Orange and Bizarro.

[6] With never a word of dialog, the humor of the strip translated well internationally; this was an interesting stylistic choice given Phillips' résumé as a professional screenwriter.

After The Strange World of Mr. Mum ended, Phillips created a few dozen large, full-color paintings based on ideas from the strip.

He wrote the book for the Broadway musical, Rumple, concerning a newspaper cartoon character whose creator loses the power to portray him.