John Dirks

John Dirks (November 2, 1917 – January 26, 2010) was an American cartoonist and sculptor.

Family Born in New York City, John was the second child of cartoonist Rudolph Dirks (1877–1968), original creator of The Katzenjammer Kids and The Captain and the Kids. His older sister, Barbara, was born in 1914.

John was married to Mary Dirks from 1954 to her death in 2004. He wrote and drew the strip until it was cancelled by United Feature Syndicate in 1979. (His father's original strip, The Katzenjammer Kids, continued to be drawn by other artists until the early 2000s.)

After retiring from cartooning, John Dirks became an avid sculptor, installing numerous fountains at various places in the world. . He died in Mystic CT in 2010 of a heart attack at age 92.