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.
10.16.1947: A villain named Mumbles makes his 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.
10.16.1961: Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas unveil Sam’s Strip, which ran until 1963. The comic depended heavily on metahumor, and appearances by famous comic-strip characters.
10.16.1997: Dick Cavalli, the creator of Monty Meekle, dies in New Canaan, Connecticut, at 74. The strip, which launched in 1956 and ran for a decade, focused on the office worker of the title. It evolved into a child-centered strip, Winthrop, which ran from 1966 until 1994.
10.16.2007: David Michaelis releases Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, which examines the life of Charles M. Schulz.
10.16.2012: The Library of American Comics launches a series reprinting the complete run of Percy Crosby’s famed strip Skippy, with an initial volume entitled Skippy Volume 1: Complete Dailies 1925-1927.
10.16.1961: Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas unveil Sam’s Strip, which ran until 1963. The comic depended heavily on metahumor, and appearances by famous comic-strip characters.
10.16.1997: Dick Cavalli, the creator of Monty Meekle, dies in New Canaan, Connecticut, at 74. The strip, which launched in 1956 and ran for a decade, focused on the office worker of the title. It evolved into a child-centered strip, Winthrop, which ran from 1966 until 1994.
10.16.2007: David Michaelis releases Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, which examines the life of Charles M. Schulz.
10.16.2012: The Library of American Comics launches a series reprinting the complete run of Percy Crosby’s famed strip Skippy, with an initial volume entitled Skippy Volume 1: Complete Dailies 1925-1927.
10.16.2021: The National Cartoonists Society gives its prestigious Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year to Ray Billingsley, creator of the comic strip Curtis. Billingsley is the first African-American to win the award.
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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