Today in the history of the American comic strip: January 18

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.

1.18.1939: Carl E. Schultze, the creator of Foxy Grandpa, dies. The strip featured a grandfather who always managed to outfox his two mischievous grandsons. Schultz signed the strip “Bunny.”

1.18.1970: Jim Lawrence’s Friday Foster debuts. It was the first strip to feature an African-American woman as the title character, but it was short-lived, ending its run in 1974.

 

1.18.2021: Newspapers that carry Pearls Before Swine begin running a week’s worth of substitute strips because the originally scheduled panels depict a military coup. Cartoonist Stephan Pastis drew the yanked strips several weeks before the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Doanld Trump, but the syndicate that distributes Pearls Before Swine decided to hold them in reserve, to avoid any erroneous perception that they were inspired by the Jan. 6 attack.
 

Foxy Grandpa

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.