Today in the history of the American comic strip: May 1

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.

5.1.1953: Walt Kelly's Pogo introduces a wildcat, Simple J. Malarkey, an obvious caricature of red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

5.1.1988: Kitchen Sink Press launches its series of Li’l Abner reprints with Li’l Abner: Dailies, Vol. 1: 1934-1935. The demise of Kitchen Sink in 1999 stopped the series at Volume 27, which covered 1961.

5.1.1997: Mike Doonesbury and Kim Rosenthal, a Jewish-raised Vietnamese orphan, are married in Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury.
 

5.1.2004: Checker Book Publishing Group releases Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Vol. 1, launching a series of reprints.

Pogo

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.