Today in the history of the American comic strip: March 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.

3.3.1921: Russ Westover’s Tillie the Toiler is launched as a daily strip. The comic about a stylish working woman ran until 1959.

3.3.1946: Milton Caniff, of Terry and the Pirates fame, discontinues Male Call, which was created in 1943 to boost the morale of U.S. troops. The strip ran in military newspapers.

3.3.1952: Lucy van Pelt, who tormented Charlie Brown and flirted with Schroeder, makes her first appearance in Charles Schulz’s Peanuts.

3.3.1986: U.S. Acres, a strip created by Jim Davis, the author of Garfield, goes to print. The strip centered on a group of barnyard animals including Orson, a small pig.
 
3.3.1997: Greg Turfman unveils Meg!, a strip starring a young soccer player, her little brother Mike, their parents and Meg’s friend Ashley. The comic remained in print for four years.

 

Tillie the Toiler

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.