Today in the history of the American comic strip: May 21

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.

5.21.1920: Lee Elias, who drew the ill-fated science-fiction strip Beyond Mars, is born in Manchester, England. The comic ran from 1952 to 1955.

5.21.1928: Tailspin Tommy, the first aviation strip to capitalize on Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 flight across the Atlantic, makes its debut. The comic  ran for 14 years.

5.21.1951: Clifford McBride, the creator of Napoleon and Uncle Elby, dies. Launched in 1932, the strip about a big, clumsy dog named Napoleon ran until 1961.

5.21.1972: King Features stops distributing Captain Kate, a strip by Jerry and Halle Skelly about an 18th-century trading ship captain named Kate Stevens. The comic ran for five years.
 

5.21.2010: Howard Post, who debuted The Dropouts in 1968, dies. The strip remained in syndication until 1981.

5.21.2011: Bill Rechin, co-creator of Crock, dies in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, at 80. His cartoon survived for almost 40 years, beginning in 1975.

Napoleon and Uncle Elby

  

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.