Today in the history of the American comic strip: January 3

American cartoonists and writers may not have invented the comic strip, but some argue that the comics, as we know them today, are an American creation. Clearly, the United States has played an outsize role in the development of this underappreciated art form.

1.3.1893. Gilbert Seldes is born in Alliance, New Jersey. A respected writer and cultural critic, he wrote in The Seven Lively Arts (1924) that George Herriman’s Krazy Kat “is, to me, the most amusing and fantastic and satisfactory work of art produced in America to-day.”

1.3.1921: Russ Westover’s Tillie the Toiler, a strip about a flapper, debuts as a daily feature. It remained in syndication for almost 40 years.

1.3.1923: Lee Wright Stanley introduces The Old Home Town, a strip featuring small-town and hillbilly-type characters. It ran until 1966.
 

1.3.1930: Clare A. Briggs dies. He was the creator of A. Piker Clerk, a short-lived comic about horse racing that ran on the sports pages.

 

1.3.1942: Available Jones, whose motto is “If It’s Too Unpleasant for You To Do — I’m Available,” joins the lineup in Al Capp’s Li’l Abner.

1.3.1977: The Amazing Spider-Man, a newspaper strip created by Stan Lee and John Romita, debuts several years after the character was first introduced in comic books. The newspaper comic ran for more than 40 years.

1.3.2000: The last daily Peanuts strip appears in print. Creator Charles M. Schulz died in February 2000.

1.3.2001: Andrews McMeel Publishing releases Mort Walker’s Private Scrapbook, by the creator of Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois.

1.3.2005: Will Eisner, the creator of The Spirit, dies in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, at 87.

1.3.2005: Brevity, created by Guy Endore-Kaiser and Rodd Perry, makes its newspaper debut.

1.3.2011: Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog, by Jonathan Mahood, moves to a new syndicate. Mahood describes the change as a relaunch of the strip, which debuted online in 2006.

1.3.2012: The Library of American Comics releases the first volume in its series of reprints of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy.

Most of the information listed here from one day to the next comes from two online sites -- Wikipedia, and Don Markstein's Toonopedia -- as well as 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics, edited by Maurice Horn. Note that my focus is on American newspaper comic strips (and the occasional foreign strip that gained popularity in the United States). Thus, comic books and exclusively online comics are not included here.