Sol Hess (writer)

Born on an Illinois farm, Hess moved with his parents to Chicago, where a short time later, his father died.

He took a job as a traveling salesman for a wholesale jewelry company and became a successful jeweler with Rettif, Hess & Madsen, a prominent firm.

He entered the comics field as an amateur writer, receiving no pay for the gags he supplied to the cartoonists.

With a situation and characters not unlike The Gumps, the strip caught on with readers and quickly became popular, enabling Hess to leave the jewelry business in 1925.

They ran another strip called The Toodle Family, and by 1947, The Nebbs had been folded into the newer comic as subsidiary characters.