Today in the history of the American comic strip: September 26

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.

9.26.1905: Bill Perry is born. He worked as an assistant to Gasoline Alley creator Frank King before officially taking over that comic’s Sunday feature in 1951. Perry helmed the strip until 1975 or 1976.

9.26.1940: A villain named Black Pearl makes her first appearance in Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy. Gould’s strip has featured a long list of colorful, often bizarre-looking, evildoers over the years.

9.26.1966: Gus Edson, longtime artist and writer of The Gumps and co-creator (with Irwin Hasen) of Dondi, dies at 64 in Stamford, Connecticut.

9.26.1979: Carl Grubert, creator of The Berrys, dies. His strip, which was syndicated from 1942 to 1974, chronicled the lives of the Berry family.

9.26.1996:  Alex Kotzky dies at 73. He was the artist on Apartment 3-G for more than 30 years, and later assumed writing duties as well.
 
9.26.2001: Fred Neher, creator of Life’s Like That, which ran from 1934 to 1977 (except during World War Two), dies in Boulder, Colorado. He was 98 years old.

Dondi

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.