Gerry Shamray Launches Wyse Advice Strip

Cartoonist Gerry Shamray -- perhaps best known for his contributions to Harvey Pekar's American Splendor -- launched Wyse Advice, a self-syndicated daily comic strip emphasizing "mature themes and more realistic drawing," on June 5, according to Editor & Publisher.

E&P reports that the daily strip features Sarah Wyse, a mother of two who loses her husband (no indication of the circumstances) and then her job. As you might anticipate, Wyse puts her life back together by accepting a job as a newspaper advice columnist. According to E&P. "One person writing to Wyse on her first day in this new position asks, 'How do I tell my husband one of the twins isn't his?'"

Despite several phone attempts, Shamray could not be reached for comment.

In a testimonial for the strip, Funky Winkerbean creator Tom Batiuk (who writes the John Darling strip drawn by Shamray) wrote, "The comics page has come to be regarded more as a children's playground... With Wyse Advice, [Shamray] is seeking to rectify that situation. His... writing and art offers a subtlety and sophistication that boldly proclaims itself as a strip about and for adults." Shamray, who works most often in pen and ink from photo references, is the editorial graphics coordinator for the Sun newspaper chain of 19 weeklies in the suburban Cleveland area. Shamray has also published in The Village Voice, and through the Entertainment Tonight television show, Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, and the Cleveland Press, and won a local Emmy award as art director at Cleveland's public WVIZ-TV station.

[Oddly, this doesn't appear in Allan Holtz. It is mentioned in the "Paper Trends" feature in 2022 as existing, though no real information is given about it. The Daily Cartoonist noted in their Shamray obituary that it ran from 1989-1990.]