The New Yorker covers: October 16, 1954

Over the years, there have been many magazines whose covers have featured the work of highly talented artists and illustrators. But probably no magazine has had more varied and memorable covers, over a longer period of time, than The New Yorker, which was founded in 1925.

Mary Petty
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Nicole Machiavelli

Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.

"What is art but a way of seeing?" Saul Bellow

"Three Cats," ca. 1928, Adolf Fleischmann

Movie Posters, 1982: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

Today in the history of the American comic strip: August 16

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.

8.16.1892: Hal Foster, the creator of Prince Valiant and the initial artist for Tarzan, is born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was named 1957 Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society. In 1964, he received a Newspaper Comic Strip award from the National Cartoonists Society.

8.16.1915: Freckles and His Friends, by Merrill Blosser, premieres as a daily strip. It ran until 1971.

8.16.1951: Charlie Brown is called a "blockhead" for the first time since Peanuts debuted in 1950.

8.16.1959: Michael Fry, the co-creator (with T. Lewis) of Over the Hedge and the creator of Committed, is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

8.16.1963: Ralph Fuller dies in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Fuller illustrated Oaky Doaks, a medieval strip scripted by William McCleery in which a farm boy has a series of misadventures. It ran from 1925 to 1961.
  
8.16.2000: Chris Browne launches Raising Duncan, a strip about married novelists and their pets, Brambley the cat and a dog named Duncan. It ran until 2005.

 

8.16.2025: The  National Cartoonists Society gives the Reuben Award for best comic strip of the year to the Argentine cartoonist Ricardo Siri, more commonly known as Liniers. His Spanish-language strip Macanudo debuted in 2002. Since 2018, it has been distributed in English as well.
 

Over the Hedge

 

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.

The New Yorker covers: September 25, 1943

Merriam-Webster defines a garden as “a plot of ground where herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables are cultivated,” but the dictionary’s definitions also include this: “a container (such as a window box) planted with usually a variety of small plants.” Houseplants and cut flowers may not meet either definition, but I think they come close.

Helen E. Hokinson
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Thomas Cole

How I have walked . . . day after day, and all alone, to see if there was not something among the old things which was new!

"What is art but a way of seeing?" Saul Bellow

"Lobstering Off Black Spruce Ledge," 1939, N.C. Wyeth

Movie Posters, 1975: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!