Ralph Stein (1909–November 27, 1994) was a writer, cartoonist and illustrator.
Stein was born in New York City in 1909. He began his career as a photographer and illustrator at The World-Telegram. During World War II, he was the staff cartoon editor for the U.S. Army magazine Yank. During that time he was co-author, with Harry Brown, of It's a Cinch, Private Finch, a humorous book about Army life, and many of his cartoons from Yank were compiled into a book called What Am I Laughing At?.
From 1954 to 1959, he wrote the daily Popeye comic strip (with Bela Zaboly providing the art) and illustrated Here's How for King Features. Stein's first daily Popeye strip was published in December 1954 and his last in August 1959, after which both he and Zaboly were replaced by Bud Sagendorf. His stories used very few of Popeye's established supporting players, with Poopdeck Pappy the sole secondary character from prior decades of Thimble Theatre to regularly and prominently appear under Stein. Instead, Stein opted to give the strip a buddy-comedy adventure style, focusing on the global travels of Popeye and his friend Sir Pomeroy, a newly-created character. He also re-introduced Bluto to the daily strip beginning in 1957, which marked the latter's first appearance within Thimble Theatre since 1932. Later, Stein created Bluto's beardless twin brother, Burlo.
Stein died in 1994 at the Saybrook Convalescent Hospital in Old Saybrook, Connecticut at age 85 after a long illness. He had lived in Connecticut for many years.