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

9.21.1885: H.T. Webster is born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. His cartoon The Timid Soul introduced Caspar Milquetoast, whom Webster described as “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick.”

9.21.1893: Frank Willard, who gave us Moon Mullins (1923-1991), is born in Anna, Illinois. His strip depicted the lives of several lowbrow characters who live in a boardinghouse.

9.21.1949: Charles Boyce, the creator of Compu-toon, is born in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The comic ran in newspapers from 1994 to 1997.

9.21.1971: Zonker Harris shows up for the first time in Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury, which debuted as a daily newspaper strip in 1970. 

9.21.1974: Paul Robinson, best known for his strip Etta Kett, dies in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, at 76. The long-running cartoon (1925-1974) about a teenager began as a way to teach teens about etiquette, hence its name.

9.21.1981: The Muppets comic strip debuts, six months after The Muppets Show ended its five-year run on television.

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.

The New Yorker covers: October 20, 1975

Over the years, there have been many magazines whose covers have featured the work of highly talented artists and illustrators. But probably no magazine has had more varied and memorable covers, over a longer period of time, than The New Yorker, which was founded in 1925.

Saul Steinberg
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Abigail Adams

Knowledge is a fine thing, and mother Eve thought so; but she smarted so severely for hers, that most of her daughters have been afraid of it since.

"What is art but a way of seeing?" Saul Bellow

"Le Moulin à l'Aube" (The Mill at Dawn), no date, Philippe Charles Jacquet

Movie Posters, 1973: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

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

9.20.1901: Gus Edson, co-creator of Dondi (1955-1986), is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

9.20.1920: Winnie Winkle makes its debut as Winnie Winkle the Breadwinner. The strip survived until 1996.

9.20.1954: Ray Helle introduces The Flibbertys, a family strip that also included a dog, a cat and a mouse. The animals could talk among themselves.
 
9.20.1962: Bill Amend, the creator of FoxTrot, is born in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was named 2006 Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society.

9.20.1964: Ben Casey, already in print as a daily strip, adds a Sunday installment. Both strips ended in 1966.

9.20.1965: Bob Weber debuts Moose, later known as Moose and Molly. Moose is a lazy, out-of-work loafer and Molly is his extremely tolerant wife. 

9.20.1965: Tales of the Green Beret debuts with a Vietnam War setting. It survived until 1968. 

9.20.1972: William Ritt, co-creator of the Brick Bradford science fiction strip, which ran from 1933 to 1987, dies at 70.

9.20.1992: Mere days after Dagwood Bumstead of the Blondie strip went to work for his wife Blondie in her new catering business, she fires him for eating up the profits. Dagwood will go back to work for his longtime boss, J.C. Dithers.

9.20.2010: Ed Stein unveils Freshly Squeezed, a cartoon about multi-generational families.

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.

The New Yorker covers: November 13, 1965

The New Yorker isn’t Sports Illustrated, of course. But a fair number of sports, from basketball and baseball to golf and hockey, have graced the magazine's covers in one form or another since its founding in 1925.

Peter Arno
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Stefan Zweig

There is nothing more terrible than to be alone among human beings.

"What is art but a way of seeing?" Saul Bellow

“Landscape in Suffolk,” 1748, Thomas Gainsborough