The New Yorker covers: September 15, 1975

The New Yorker isn’t Sports Illustrated, of course. But a fair number of sports, from basketball and baseball to golf and hockey, have graced the magazine's covers in one form or another since its founding in 1925.

James Stevenson
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . André Comte-Sponville

Politeness is the first virtue, and the origin perhaps of all the others.

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

"The Old Violin," 1886, William Michael Harnett

Movie Posters, 2026: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

Today in the history of the American comic strip: October 1

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.

10.1.1926: Ramona Fradon is born. When Dale Messick, the creator of Brenda Starr, Reporter retired in 1980, Fradon began drawing the strip, and continued to do so until 1995.

10.1.1933: Zack Mosley’s The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack, an aviation strip, begins its 40-year run.

10.1.1933: Little Joe, a Western strip created by Ed Leffingwell, debuts. It survived for four decades as a Sundays-only comic.
 
10.1.1934: Fred Neher introduces Life’s Like That, which was discontinued in 1941 but returned from 1945 to 1977. At its peak, it ran in 500 newspapers. 

10.1.1949: Corky Wallet, son of Walt and Phyllis Wallet in Gasoline Alley, marries Hope Hassel.

10.1.1984: Mike Peters unveils Mother Goose and Grimm. The strip, which is ongoing, revolves around a dog named Grimm, a goose named Mother Goose, a Boston Terrier named Ralph and a cat named Attila.

10.1.1995: The U.S. Postal Service issues 20 commemorative stamps dubbed Comic Strip Classics in honor of the 100th anniversary of the newspaper comic strip. The stamps honor The Yellow Kid, Bringing Up Father, Krazy Kat, Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Prince Valiant, Li’l Abner, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and 10 other strips.

10.1.2004: Harry N. Abrams releases The Comics: Before 1945, by Brian Walker.

 

10.1.2023: Brian Crane, the creator of Pickles, tells the Reno Gazette Journal in Nevada that he gets many ideas for the strip from family members. ”I drew heavily (pardon the pun) on my own grandparents,” Crane said. “I also found inspiration in my mother- and father-in-law. They were funny without trying to be.”

 

10.1.2023: Jeff Keane, who inherited The Family Circus when his father Bill Keane died in 2011, says in a Gannett newspapers interview that he still thinks of the long-running comic as his father’s. “I’m nothing but proud of the opportunity to continue something that he created,” Keane says.

The Adventures of Smilin' Jack

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: October 16, 1965

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.

Charles E. Martin
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few few words from . . . William Shakespeare

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

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

"First Touch of Autumn," 1898, William Merritt Chase 

Movie Posters, 1929: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!