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.
6.6.1926: Tom K. Ryan, whose Tumbleweeds (1965-2007) satirized the Old West, is born in Anderson, Indiana.
6.6.1930: Jerry Dumas is born in Detroit, Michigan. Working with Mort Walker, he was the co-creator of Sam’s Strip (1961-1963) and its successor, Sam and Silo, which launched in 1977.
6.6.1958: Sergeant Orville Snorkel’s dog Otto, who first appeared as a regular dog in Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey, finally acquires an Army uniform. Once Otto was uniformed and walking upright, Walker said of him: “I guess he’s funnier that way.”
6.6.1977: Joe Musial dies in Manhasset, New York, at 72. He drew The Katzenjammer Kids from 1956 until his death. Created by Rudolph Dirks, the strip ran from 1897 to 2006.
6.6.1994: Bruce Tinsley launches Mallard Fillmore, a strip starring an anthropomorphic, and politically conservative, duck.
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.
