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.
10.1.1926: Ramona Fradon is born. When Dale Messick, the creator of Brenda Starr, Reporter retired in 1980, Fradon began drawing the strip, and continued to do so until 1995.
10.1.1933: Zack Mosley’s The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack, an aviation strip, begins its 40-year run.
10.1.1933: Little Joe, a Western strip created by Ed Leffingwell, debuts. It survived for four decades as a Sundays-only comic.
10.1.1934: Fred Neher introduces Life’s Like That, which was discontinued in 1941 but returned from 1945 to 1977. At its peak, it ran in 500 newspapers.
10.1.1949: Corky Wallet, son of Walt and Phyllis Wallet in Gasoline Alley, marries Hope Hassel.
10.1.1984: Mike Peters unveils Mother Goose and Grimm. The strip, which is ongoing, revolves around a dog named Grimm, a goose named Mother Goose, a Boston Terrier named Ralph and a cat named Attila.
10.1.1995: The U.S. Postal Service issues 20 commemorative stamps dubbed Comic Strip Classics in honor of the 100th anniversary of the newspaper comic strip. The stamps honor The Yellow Kid, Bringing Up Father, Krazy Kat, Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Prince Valiant, Li’l Abner, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and 10 other strips.
10.1.2004: Harry N. Abrams releases The Comics: Before 1945, by Brian Walker.
10.1.1926: Ramona Fradon is born. When Dale Messick, the creator of Brenda Starr, Reporter retired in 1980, Fradon began drawing the strip, and continued to do so until 1995.
10.1.1933: Zack Mosley’s The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack, an aviation strip, begins its 40-year run.
10.1.1933: Little Joe, a Western strip created by Ed Leffingwell, debuts. It survived for four decades as a Sundays-only comic.
10.1.1934: Fred Neher introduces Life’s Like That, which was discontinued in 1941 but returned from 1945 to 1977. At its peak, it ran in 500 newspapers.
10.1.1949: Corky Wallet, son of Walt and Phyllis Wallet in Gasoline Alley, marries Hope Hassel.
10.1.1984: Mike Peters unveils Mother Goose and Grimm. The strip, which is ongoing, revolves around a dog named Grimm, a goose named Mother Goose, a Boston Terrier named Ralph and a cat named Attila.
10.1.1995: The U.S. Postal Service issues 20 commemorative stamps dubbed Comic Strip Classics in honor of the 100th anniversary of the newspaper comic strip. The stamps honor The Yellow Kid, Bringing Up Father, Krazy Kat, Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Prince Valiant, Li’l Abner, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and 10 other strips.
10.1.2004: Harry N. Abrams releases The Comics: Before 1945, by Brian Walker.
10.1.2023: Brian Crane, the creator of Pickles, tells the Reno Gazette Journal in Nevada that he gets many ideas for the strip from family members. ”I drew heavily (pardon the pun) on my own grandparents,” Crane said. “I also found inspiration in my mother- and father-in-law. They were funny without trying to be.”
10.1.2023: Jeff Keane, who inherited The Family Circus when his father Bill Keane died in 2011, says in a Gannett newspapers interview that he still thinks of the long-running comic as his father’s. “I’m nothing but proud of the opportunity to continue something that he created,” Keane says.
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| The Adventures of Smilin' Jack |
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.
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