Today in the history of the American comic strip: August 7

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.

8.7.1933: After a brief, abortive start with a syndicate that quickly folded, Vincent L. Hamlin’s Alley Oop makes its successful, long-term debut, in a daily format.

8.7.1933: Radio Patrol debuts as a police comic strip created by artist Charles Schmidt and writer Eddie Sullivan, both of whom worked for the Boston American newspaper. The daily strip ran until 1950, with a Sunday installment from 1934 to 1946.

8.7.1999: Doonesbury’s Mark Slackmeyer and Chase Talbott III exchange marriage vows in a plane over the Pacific Ocean.

8.7.2011: Bob Weber Jr. and Jay Stephens discontinue Oh, Brother!, a strip about young siblings, Bud and Lily, who often seemed at odds but loved each other deeply.

 

Alley Oop

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.