Today in the history of the American comic strip: October 22

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.

10.22.1934: Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates debuts. Caniff left the strip in 1946, but it remained in syndication until 1973.

10.22.1945: Bitter Laff, a single-panel cartoon illustrating the absurdities and frustrations of daily life, changes its name to There Oughta Be a Law! The comic ran until 1985.

10.22.1954: George McManus, the creator of Bringing Up Father (1913-2000), dies in Santa Monica, California, at 70.


10.22.1963: Pete the Tramp creator Clarence D. Russell dies at 68. His strip, which launched in 1932, ended shortly after his death.

10.22.2019: The Library of America releases The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life. In it, 33 writers and artists reflect on, as the LOA puts it, “the deeper truths of Charles M. Schulz’s deceptively simple comic, its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture.”

  

10.22.2023: In a strip obviously inspired by Jules Feiffer’s famous dancer, Mooch, the cat in Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts, breaks into an expressive dance dedicated to comic strips. Or, as Mooch, who has a speech impediment, puts it, “a dance to comic shtrips.”
 

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.