Today in the history of the American comic strip: October 14

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.

10.14.1872: Comic strip writer Sol Ness, co-creator (with Wallace Carlson) of The Nebbs, a domestic strip, is born in Illinois.

10.14.1877: Grace Drayton is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the first and most successful female cartoonists, she created several newspaper strips, including Dolly Dimples, which launched in 1910.
 
10.14.1894: Poet E. E. Cummings is born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1946, when H. Holt & Co. published the first reprints of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat in book form, Cummings wrote a lengthy introduction, providing further evidence of the strip’s popularity among intellectuals.

10.14.1945:  Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br’er Rabbit begins its 27-year run. It featured various artists and writers over the years.

10.14.1993: Dogpatch, Arkansas, the final incarnation of a troubled amusement park launched in 1968 as a Li’l Abner theme park initially known as Dogwatch USA, closes its doors for good.

10.14.1996: Cartoonist Ferd Johnson dies at age 90. Although he did not create Moon Mullins (Frank Willard did), Johnson worked on the strip for 68 years.
 

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.

Movie Posters, 1950: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

The New Yorker covers: June 9, 1986

Merriam-Webster defines a garden as “a plot of ground where herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables are cultivated,” but the dictionary’s definitions also include this: “a container (such as a window box) planted with usually a variety of small plants.” Houseplants and cut flowers may not meet either definition, but I think they come close.

Iris van Rynbach
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Elie Wiesel

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death. It’s indifference.

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

"First Born," 1925, Dod Procter

Movie Posters, 2026: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

 

Today in the history of the American comic strip: October 13

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.

10.13.1885: Harry Hershfield, the cartoonist behind Abie the Agent, is born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The cartoon, which debuted in 1914, featured the first Jewish protagonist in an American comic strip.

10.13.1938: E.C. Segar, the creator of Popeye, dies at 43 in Santa Monica, California, as a result of leukemia and liver disease.

10.13.1941: Will Esiner's The Spirit, already the main feature in a comic-book supplement for newspapers, expands its reach to include a daily strip as well.

 

10.13.1948: An American plane affiliated with Operation Little Vittles, which dropped candy on Berlin during the Soviet blockade of western sectors of that city, takes off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City carrying about 100 plastic, candy-filled shmoos for Berlin’s children. The shmoo was, at that time, a recently introduced and very popular addition to Al Capp’s Li’l Abner.

10.13.1959: A villain named Flyface 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.
 
10.13.2006: Hilda Terry, 92, dies in New York City. She created the comic strip It’s a Girl’s Life, which later evolved into Teena. The revised strip ran from 1944 to 1964. 

10.13.2015: The Library of American Comics releases King of the Comics: 100 Years of King Features Syndicate. King Features is a venerable distributor of comic strips.

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: August 4, 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.

Arthur Getz
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Jane Austen

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.