Keep Ziggy: Strongsville Residents Want To Preserve Character

STRONGSVILLE, OH — Since 1975, Ziggy has been part of the Strongsville community. Painted onto the city's water tower by cartoonist creator Tom Wilson, the iconic character is slated to be removed when the water tower is painted in 2018. Except, some residents are asking the city to preserve Wilson's work.

A petition on Change.org to keep Ziggy on the water tower had already garnered more than 1,400 signatures by 9 a.m. Tuesday morning. The creator of the petition, Rick Doll, said on the Change.org website that he wants to preserve the work of a local artist.

"...this feels like the one constant that hasn't changed and honestly - for as silly as it sounds - it is the one noticeable thing that many of us who have moved away associate with coming back home. It's literally the one unique thing I can think of that Strongsville has left - and it's visible from pretty much everywhere, including surrounding cities," Doll told Patch.

Wilson, who died in 2011, worked for American Greetings and created both the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake, along with Ziggy. Wilson lived in the Cleveland-area for much of his life. His son, Tom Wilson Jr., continues to draw the Ziggy comic strip.

The water tower is set for a sprucing up and will be painted with help from the Cleveland Water Department, the city announced on Facebook.

"I'm creating this petition in hopes that we can SAVE ZIGGY, so that we may continue to commemorate the life of a local artist who represented us on a national stage, as well as preserve a bit of Strongsville's history," Doll said on his petition's website.

History of the Strongsville Ziggy

How did Wilson's work end up on the city's water tower? A confusion of pop culture references.

In 1975, students at Strongsville High School scaled the water tower and wrote, "Ziggy '75" on the side. Seeing the painted words, city officials decided to one-up the students and ask the creator of Ziggy to paint his character on the water tower.

Of course, what city officials didn't put together, was that the high school students were talking about Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie's character from his album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars."

Still, Wilson hand-painted Ziggy on the side of the water tower and for nearly four decades the character has become part of the city's fabric, cozied up right next to the high school mascot, the Mustang.

"Ziggy has to be one of the most relatable cartoon characters of all time, and one of the few (other than Blondie, Doonesbury, Family Circus and maybe Marmaduke) to make it through a period of time that saw comic strips change style/content wise, or get scrapped due to diminishing newspaper sales," Doll said.

Between the iconic throwback to another period and as a preservation of Wilson's work, Doll thinks there's enough to spark a community conversation on what to do about Ziggy. To see Doll's petition, click here.

Strongsville Service Director Joe Walker did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment on this story.

Photo from Google Earth