Today in the history of the American comic strip: February 5

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.

2.5.1929: The first installment of  Jimmy Hatlo's They'll Do It Every Time appears in print. The long-running comic (it ran until 2008) highlighted the frustrations of everyday life, usually based on readers' submissions.

2.5.1935: Rose O'Neill resurrects her previously discontinued strip The Kewpies as a Sunday page, but it disappeared once again in 1937.

 

2.5.1955: Ham Fisher, the creator of Joe Palooka and a longtime arch enemy of Li’l Abner creator Al Capp, is expelled from the National Cartoonists Society. The expulsion occurred after Fisher falsely accused Capp of sneaking sexual references into some Li'l Abner strips.

2.5.1961: The Yogi Bear comic strip debuts. Created by Gene Hazelton, it survived until 1988.

 

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.