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.
10.15.1905: Winsor McCay introduces his pioneering strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland. Comics historian R. C. Harvey has called McCay "the first original genius of the comic strip medium."
10.15.1912: Harry Hershfield’s Desperate Desmond ends its run after less than three years. It featured a villain (Desmond) in constant, but unsuccessful, pursuit of Rosamond, a damsel in distress.
10.15.1955: Simple J. Malarkey, a wildcat who first appeared in Pogo in 1953 as a caricature of red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, turns up once again with his face covered by his own speech balloons. Cartoonist Walt Kelly had previously covered Malarkey’s face with a bag in 1954, after The Providence Bulletin threatened to drop the strip if Malarkey’s face appeared again. Malarkey donned the bag when a Rhode Island Red hen approached him, because, Malarkey said, “no one from Providence should see me!”
10.15.1962: Kenneth Bald’s daily Dr. Kildare strip, based on the television series, premieres. It ran for more than two decades, outliving the TV series that spawned it. A Sunday strip ran from 1964 to 1983.
10.15.2012: To celebrate the 107th anniversary of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, Google displays an interactive Google Doodle called "Little Nemo in Google-land.”
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.
10.15.1912: Harry Hershfield’s Desperate Desmond ends its run after less than three years. It featured a villain (Desmond) in constant, but unsuccessful, pursuit of Rosamond, a damsel in distress.
10.15.1955: Simple J. Malarkey, a wildcat who first appeared in Pogo in 1953 as a caricature of red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, turns up once again with his face covered by his own speech balloons. Cartoonist Walt Kelly had previously covered Malarkey’s face with a bag in 1954, after The Providence Bulletin threatened to drop the strip if Malarkey’s face appeared again. Malarkey donned the bag when a Rhode Island Red hen approached him, because, Malarkey said, “no one from Providence should see me!”
10.15.1962: Kenneth Bald’s daily Dr. Kildare strip, based on the television series, premieres. It ran for more than two decades, outliving the TV series that spawned it. A Sunday strip ran from 1964 to 1983.
10.15.2012: To celebrate the 107th anniversary of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, Google displays an interactive Google Doodle called "Little Nemo in Google-land.”
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| Little Nemo in Slumberland |
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