The New Yorker covers: December 15, 2008

I don’t get too excited about holidays, with one major exception. I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for Christmas. The New Yorker has run many Christmas covers over the years, some of which, such as those by the late George Booth, are quite memorable.

Marcellus Hall
"Green Christmas"

And now, a few words from . . . Benjamin Disraeli

There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honour.

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

"The Hunter," 1943, Andrew Wyeth

Movie Posters, 1983: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

Today in the history of the American comic strip: February 26

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.

2.26.1877: Rudolph Dirks, creator of The Katzenjammer Kids (later known as The Captain and the Kids) is born in Heide, Germany. His family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when he was seven years old.

2.26.1905: Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, a strip written by L. Frak Baum and illustrated by Walt McDougall, is discontinued. It debuted in 1904 to promote one of Baum’s books in the Oz series.
 
2.26.2013: Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen release Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary, a biography of the legendary cartoonist who created Li'l Abner.

2.26.2013: Stephan Pastis, the creator of Pearls Before Swine, publishes the first of several Timmy Failure children’s books.
 
2.26.2020: The California auction house Profiles in History announces that the original artwork for Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon is going on the auction block. The pencil-and-ink drawing was first published in January 1934.

 

2.26.2023: The New York Times reports that hundreds of newspapers across the country are dropping Dilbert because creator  Scott Adams said on a YouTube live stream that Black people are “a hate group” and white people should “just get the hell away” from them.
 

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: November 7, 1994

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.

Art Spiegelman
"Unveiled"

And now, a few words from . . . Frederick Douglass

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.