Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 30

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.

4.30.1928: Tailspin Tommy, an adventure strip about a young pilot, begins its 14-year run, in four newspapers. By 1931, it had expanded to more than 250 papers.
 
4.30.1929: Mary Gold, a character in Sidney Smith’s strip The Gumps, dies. The Gumps was extremely popular at the time, and Gold’s death created a sensation. Smith became the first American cartoonist to kill off a major character in a comic strip.

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 29

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.

4.29.1877: Tad Dorgan, the creator of Judge Rummy, is born in San Francisco. The strip, which featured an anthropomorphic dog named Alexander Rumhauser, ran from 1910 to 1922.

4.29.1906: Artist Lyonel Feininger launches The Kin-der-Kids, which survived for a mere four months.
 
4.29.1908: Jack Williamson, a science fiction writer who also wrote the cartoon Beyond Mars (1952-1955), is born in Bisbee, Arizona Territory. Lee Elias drew the comic strip.

4.29.1951: Bill Perry, who had worked as an assistant to Gasoline Alley creator Frank King, officially takes over that comic’s Sunday feature. He held the job until 1975 or 1976. King continued to handle the daily installments for a time, before handing them over to Dick Moores.

The Kin-der-Kids

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 28

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.

4.28.1887: Charles Voight, the creator of Betty (1920-1943), a glamour-girl comic, is born in Brooklyn, New York.
 
4.28.1911: Lee Falk is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He gave comics fans Mandrake the Magician (1934-2013) and The Phantom (1936-present).

4.28.1966: Gladys Parker, the creator of Mopsy, dies of lung cancer. She was 56. A strip about an independent, witty woman, Mopsy debuted in 1939 and remained in print until 1965.
 
4.28.1990: Edwina Dumm dies in Santa Rosa, California, at 96 or 97. She created Cap Stubbs and Tippie, a comic about the adventures of a boy and his dog that ran from 1918 to 1966. Dumm is a member of the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame.

Cap Stubbs and Tippie

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 27

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.

4.27.1890: Dudley Fisher is born in Columbus, Ohio. Right Around Home, which he launched as a Sunday strip in 1937, ran until 1964, with name changes along the way. A daily version titled Myrtle began in 1942.

4.27.1958: Rick O’Shay, a Western strip created by Stan Lynde, debuts with a Sunday strip. A daily feature began about two months later.

4.27.2016: The Library of American Comics releases the first of three volumes reprinting the Silly Symphonies comic strip, which ran from 1932 to 1942 as an adaptation of the animated short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939.

4.27.2020: Mark Tatulli, who launched Heart of the City in 1998, turns the strip over to Christina “Steenz” Stewart, whose drawing style is quite different than Tatulli’s. The switch makes Stewart one of the few female African-American cartoonists with a mainstream newspaper strip.
 
4.27.2020: The New York Times runs a story about the COVID-19 pandemic finally working its way into daily comic strips, based on interviews with several cartoonists. They include Mark Tatulli (Lio), Ray Billingsley (Curtis), Bill Hinds (Tank McNamara), Tony Carrillo (F Minus), Lalo Alcaraz (La Cucaracha) and Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine).

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 26

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.

4.26.1952: Characters in Walt Kelly’s Pogo demand that the strip’s namesake, Pogo Possum, run for president, which he does. He loses, and tries again in 1956, with the same result.
 
4.26.1970: Steve Breen, the creator of Grand Avenue and a political cartoonist, is born in Los Angeles, California.

4.26.2001: Henry Boltinoff dies, at 87. The comic strips he worked on included Stoker the Broker, This and That, Woody Forrest and Hocus-Focus.
 
4.26.2004: Phyllis (Blossom) Wallet, the wife of Gasoline Alley’s Walt Wallet for nearly eight decades, dies in the strip, leaving Walt a widower.

4.26.2020: Coronavirus and the resulting safeguards, which made no appearance in the Sunday comics during the early weeks of the pandemic, turn up with increasing frequency in a growing number of strips.  In Doonesbury, for example, a character has a pizza delivered to a barn "to quarantine it," only to discover a week later that animals have eaten it in the interim.

Gasoline Alley

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 25

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.

4.25.1924: Krazy Kat’s George Herriman, one of the true geniuses of the genre, dies in Los Angeles, California. He was 63.

4.25.1939: Nicole Hollander, the creator of Sylvia, is born in Chicago, Illinois. Her comic ran as a newspaper strip from 1981 to 2012.

4.25.1960: After hugging Snoopy, Linus says “happiness is a warm puppy” for the first time in Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts.

4.25.1987: The final Brick Bradford daily strip appears in print. The science fiction comic created by writer William Ritt and artist Clarence Gray began its run in 1933.

 

Sylvia

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 24

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.

4.24.1899: Allen Saunders, who wrote Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Mary Worth, and Kerry Drake, is born in Lebanon, Indiana.

4.24.1912: George Wunder, who drew Terry and the Pirates for more than two decades, is born in New York City.

4.24.1930: Howie Schneider is born in New York City. He created Eek & Meek, which ran from 1965 to 2000. 

4.24.1939: George Clark unveils The Neighbors, a gag-a-day comic. A Sunday feature bearing a different title was dropped in 1948, but the daily cartoon survived until 1976.

4.24.2013: Gasoline Alley’s Walt Wallet visits the “Comics Retirement Home” in the first of several strips that show him palling around with characters from defunct comics.

 

Gasoline Alley

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 23

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.

4.23.1916: The first Sunday strip of George Herriman's Krazy Kat appears. One of the most innovative and admired comics of all time, Krazy Kat ran until 1944.

4.23.1963: Al Fagaly dies at 54. With Harry Shorten, he created Bitter Laff (later known as There Oughta Be a Law!) in 1945. It ran until 1985.

4.3.1978: The World’s Greatest Superheroes, a seven-day-a-week strip featuring DC Comics characters, makes its debut. It initially starred Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Black Lightning, but it underwent several title change as Superman became the primary character. The strip ran until February 1985.
 
4.23.2001: PreTeena, a strip about a 10-year-old girl named Teena Keene, debuts. Created by Allison Barrows, the comic remained in print until 2008.

4.23.2020: Slate.com reports that Cathy Guisewite, whose Cathy strip ended in 2010, is posting one-panel Cathy cartoons on Instagram. The article reported that, since mid-March, all of the Instagram Cathy comics have dealt with life in quarantine, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Krazy Kat

 

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 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.

4.22.1970: Pogo Possum, the title character in Walt Kelly’s Pogo, says “We have met the enemy and he is us” in a poster Kelly drew to help promote the first annual Earth Day. 

 

4.22.1971: Muckraking newspaper columnist Jack Anderson publishes a column accusing Li’l Abner creator Al Capp of sexual misconduct in 1968 involving several female students at the University of Alabama. Capp had not been charged in 1968, and he denies the allegations when they surface in 1971.
 
4.22.1986: Dick Moores, who worked on Gasoline Alley for nearly three decades, dies. He was 76. Moores began as an assistant to creator Frank King, and later took control of the strip.

4.22.1990: The Buckets debuts, Created by Scott Stantis, the comic focuses on a suburban family, including a pooch named Dogzilla.

4.22.2024: The New York Times reports that Blondie, Dagwood's wife in the Blondie comic strip long dominated by Dagwood, is getting a more prominent role in the comic.

 

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 21

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.

4.21.1950: Bill Hinds, the co-creator of Tank McNamara and the creator of Cleats, is born in Houston, Texas.

 

4.21.1960: Adam Wallet and Eve Wallet, grandchildren of Gasoline Alley patriarch Walt Wallet, are born to Corky Wallet and Hope (Hassel) Wallet. The newborn twins are part of the comic strip’s third generation of characters.

4.21.1977: An adaptation of Little Orphan Annie opens on Broadway. The production ran until Jan. 2, 1983. The stage show spawned film adaptations of the Broadway play.

4.21.1984: Kenneth Bald’s daily Dr. Kildare strip, based on the television series, is canceled. It ran for more than two decades, outliving the TV series that spawned it.

4.21.2003: Mark Pett’s Lucky Cow debuts. The strip, which survived for five years, focused on a fictional fast food chain named Lucky Cow.

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 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.

4.20.1942: Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby debuts. Johnson is best known for his children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon.

4.20.1968: Rudolph Dirks, creator of The Katzenjammer Kids (later known as The Captain and the Kids) dies in New York City, at 91.

4.20.1995: Farley, the beloved 14-year-old Old English Sheepdog in For Better or For Worse, dies after saving April, a young girl, from drowning.

4.20.2010: The Library of American Comics releases the first volume in its set of Li’l Abner reprints.

4.20.2012: Jan Eliot's Stone Soup takes a shot at former Vice President Dick Cheney a month after his heart transplant. When one character describes politicians as “backroom dudes who profit from our ignorance and complacency,” her sister replies: “Which reminds me … how’s Cheney’s new heart?”

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 19

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.

4.19.1970: Russell Myers’ Broom Hilda, a strip about a cigar-loving 1,500-year-old witch, debuts. The National Cartoonists Society honored Myers with its Newspaper Comic Strip award in 1975.

4.19.1989: Mike Doonesbury, assigned by the ad agency he works for to create a new mascot for the tobacco industry, has a disturbing dream starring Mr. Butts.
 

4.19.1999: Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks makes its national premiere. The strip examined the world through the eyes of a young African-American radical named Huey Freeman.

4.19.2004: When his Humvee is hit by an RPG in Iraq, Doonesbury character B.D. loses a leg and begins a long journey of recovery.

4.19.2011: The Library of American Comics launches a series reprinting Secret Agent X-9 strips from the 1930s, as well as more recent strips from the retitled X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan.
 

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.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: April 18

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.

4.18.1977: Sam and Silo, a spin-off from a comic titled Sam’s Strip (1961-1963), makes its debut. Created by Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas, Sam and Silo chronicled the misadventures of a sheriff and his deputy in a town called Upper Duckwater.

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.