Today in the history of the American comic strip: December 20

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.

12.20.1914: Charles Edson “Chuck” McKimson Jr. is born in Denver, Colorado. Best known as an animator,  he drew the Roy Rogers comic strip from 1949 to 1953, in collaboration with his brother Thomas and artist Pete Alvarado.

12.20.1945: Dick Tracy, a movie based on the comic strip of the same name, premieres. It was the first of four installments in a series.

12.20.1966:  Oskar Lebeck dies at his home in La Jolla, California at 63. He was the co-creator (with Al McWilliams) of Twin Earths (1952-1963), a science fiction strip in which advanced aliens from another Earth on the opposite side of the sun visit our planet.

12.20.1978: Sports cartoonist Willard Mullin, famous for his creation of the Brooklyn Bum, dies.

Twin Earths

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.