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.
12.21.1928: George Gately, the creator of Heathcliff, is born in New York City. The strip about an orange cat debuted in 1973.
12.21.1943: A villain named Flattop Jones makes his first appearance in Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy. Gould’s strip has featured a long list of colorful, often bizarre-looking, evildoers over the years.
12.21.1950: Charlie Brown wears his trademark zigzag shirt for the first time in Charles Schulz's Peanuts.
12.21.1975: The final Mickey Finn Sunday strip runs, leaving only the daily version. Launched in 1936, the comic centered on likable Irish-American police officer Michael Aloysius "Mickey" Finn in suburban Port Chester, New York.
12.21.1943: A villain named Flattop Jones makes his first appearance in Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy. Gould’s strip has featured a long list of colorful, often bizarre-looking, evildoers over the years.
12.21.1950: Charlie Brown wears his trademark zigzag shirt for the first time in Charles Schulz's Peanuts.
12.21.1975: The final Mickey Finn Sunday strip runs, leaving only the daily version. Launched in 1936, the comic centered on likable Irish-American police officer Michael Aloysius "Mickey" Finn in suburban Port Chester, New York.
12.21.1993: Zack Mosley, the creator of The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack, dies in Stuart, Florida, at 87. The strip ran for 40 years.
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| Mickey Finn |
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.
