Today in the history of the American comic strip: February 14

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.

2.14.1865: Carl Anderson, the creator of Henry, is born in Madison, Wisconsin. His strip focused on a bald, mute boy who communicated in pantomime.

2.14.1884: A. E. Hayward is born in Camden New Jersey. In 1918, he debuted Somebody’s Stenog (short for stenographer), which was one of the first daily strips focusing on an independent woman.

2.14.1904: Jimmy Swinnerton launches Jimmy, later known as Little Jimmy. The comic ran for 54 years. Don Markstein's Toonopedia describes the titular Jimmy as "a wide-eyed innocent" who was "easy prey to the foibles of little boys."

2.14.1921: Bachelor Walt Wallet finds a baby, whom he names Skeezix, abandoned on his doorstep in Frank King's Gasoline Alley. It proves to be a legendary event in comic-strip history. Skeezix was the first comic character to age chronologically.

2.14.1954: King of the Royal Mounted, a strip about a Canadian Mountie who always gets his man, draws to a close after almost two decades. 

 

2.14.1994: Snoopy's brother Andy makes his Peanuts debut. Snoopy has at least five siblings: brothers Spike, Marbles, Olaf and Andy; and sister Belle.

Gasoline Alley

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.