Today in the history of the American comic strip: December 27

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.

12.27.1918: John Celardo, who worked on Tarzan, Buz Sawyer and Tales of the Green Beret, is born in New York City.

12.27.1955: Ham Fisher, who created Joe Palooka (1921-1984), commits suicide at 55. Fisher, whose health was failing at the time of his death, had been engaged in a bitter and long-running feud with Li’l Abner creator Al Capp, who later described Fisher's suicide as one of his greatest accomplishments.

12.27.1958: Jack Cole’s Betsy and Me, a strip about a dysfunctional American family, is discontinued less than a year after its debut.

12.27.2003: Animator and comic book artist Pete Alvarado dies in La Crescenta, California, at 83. He collaborated with Charles Edson “Chuck” McKimson Jr. and brother Thomas McKimson on the Roy Rogers comic strip, which ran from 1949 to 1953.
 

Joe Palooka

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.