Today in the history of the American comic strip: August 16

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.

8.16.1892: Hal Foster, the creator of Prince Valiant and the initial artist for Tarzan, is born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was named 1957 Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society. In 1964, he received a Newspaper Comic Strip award from the National Cartoonists Society.

8.16.1915: Freckles and His Friends, by Merrill Blosser, premieres as a daily strip. It ran until 1971.

8.16.1951: Charlie Brown is called a "blockhead" for the first time since Peanuts debuted in 1950.

8.16.1959: Michael Fry, the co-creator (with T. Lewis) of Over the Hedge and the creator of Committed, is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

8.16.1963: Ralph Fuller dies in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Fuller illustrated Oaky Doaks, a medieval strip scripted by William McCleery in which a farm boy has a series of misadventures. It ran from 1925 to 1961.
  
8.16.2000: Chris Browne launches Raising Duncan, a strip about married novelists and their pets, Brambley the cat and a dog named Duncan. It ran until 2005.
 

Over the Hedge

 

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.