Today in the history of the American comic strip: January 4

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.

1.4.1916: George Herriman retires The Dingbat Family after a six-year run.

1.4.1975: Bob Montana, who created the original Archie characters, dies in Meredith, New Hampshire. He began drawing the Archie comic book in 1942, and the newspaper strip in 1947.

1.4.1982: Greg Howard debuts Sally Forth, a comic about a white, American, middle-class family.

1.4.2010: Dustin begins its run. Created by Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker, the strip focuses on the so-called boomerang generation. The National Cartoonists Society gave the creators the 2010 Newspaper Comic Strip award.

1.4.2020: Today's episode of The Pajama Diaries marks the close of the strip, which focused on the Kaplans, a Jewish family living in Ohio. Cartoonist Terri Libenson launched it in 2006.

Dustin

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.