A Selected History of Comics

One of my great art teachers said that all artists start out cartoonists. They just evolve to 'higher' forms of art. Okay, so he wasn't all that great. The point I think he was trying to make is that cartoons are basic reflections on daily life, little pieces of humanity preserved on a cave wall, a tapestry or a newspaper clipping. So although I can't agree with my professor's view of cartooning on the evolutional scale of art, I do agree cartooning is a necessary part of the developing artist, and human. Every kid does it once or twice, drawing a picture of the cat and begging to have it put on the refrigerator for public display. Things don't change much from the childhood artist to the adult, do they? I'd write you a plain dry history but I looked on Google.com and that's already been done. And let's face it, just throwing around a bunch of names and dates isn't too interesting without the stories behind them. So I've given a couple of links if you would like to get familiar with the cut and dry history that is comics, and I'll sidetrack to a few stories I came upon in the great history that is comic strips.

In the late 1800's, newspapers were doing everything they could to make a buck, Pulitzer and Hearst were at each other's throats in competition. Comics began for just that reason, to sell extra papers on Sunday. It all started with Outcault's Yellow Kid, originally called Hogan's Alley. The name 'Yellow Kid' was given as presses began to experiment with different color inks. One day the strip came out with the main character sporting a fine yellow smock. Why did they choose yellow? Well let's just say their ideas of fashion aren't the same as today's.

By 1900, hundreds of strips were being produced for a comic hungry public. In fact, the strips didn't even have to be funny, the public was that deprived of the funnies we now take for granted. Nowadays comic strips must be funny. Sometimes though we still run into those comics we don't understand. A whole site has been dedicated to this called Comics I Don't Understand. It's enlightening, thoughtful and makes you feel better since you're not the only one who doesn't get it.

The next strip that is considered the first bonafide strip is the Katzenjammer Kids printed by Hearst Publications. Written by Rudolph Dirks, this was one of the first strips to use word balloons to express the characters' ideas and also a multiple panel strip. Odd thing about these kids, they changed nationalities throughout their reign in the comics section from 1897 to today. First based largely on German humor and an earlier cartoon strip from Germany titled Max Und Moritz, World Wars I and II came along and the kids became Dutch. During this identity crisis Dirks lost his rights to the strip after taking a break from drawing. He eventually moved over to Pulitzer's papers, making a new strip entitled The Captain and The Kids. As Dirks was jousted out of his position and the strip was continued by Hearst under the artist Harold Knerr, the Katzenjammer Kids gradually became more Americanized in their speech.

George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat, also caught my eye as I browsed through the history of comics. Now a favorite among artists and deep thinkers, Krazy Kat wasn't as popular as most strips of the day. Distributed by Hearst Publications, Hearst being one of the biggest fans, Krazy Kat was only printed in 40 something papers nationwide. Krazy Kat began as a side story from Herriman's regular strip, the Dingbat family, but eventually the cat and mouse game on the side took his interest more than the main characters, and Krazy Kat became its own strip in 1913. Herriman's inventiveness with this strip still inspires many today. The backgrounds of the comic strip, taken from the American Southwest changed continually from one panel to another in shape and environment. Herriman's constant play of the language engaged many that happened upon the strip in the arts and drama page. Herriman continued to draw the strip until 1944 when he died in his sleep. His ashes were scattered over the rugged landscape of the southwest, where Krazy, Ignatz the mouse and Offisa Pupp still roam.

The Krazy Kat artist also teamed up with journalist and poet Don Marquis for his series of stories entitled Archy and Mehitabel. Herriman illustrated the first few books about a roach, which, in a previous life had been a great poet, but now spent his time dancing on a typewriter and keeping company with an alley cat. Other great cartoonists have since then drawn Archy the roach, such as the late Edward Gorey.

Like any other invention or idea, there's some unknown caveman or woman who started the whole comics thing and doesn't get the credit. Narrowing this article down to American strips, I also left out a lot of good Europeans who paved the way for our country's comics. What's amazing though is that throughout the entire history of comics, the main idea has stayed the same. It's either been a narrative strip about storytelling, everyday life, or maybe how the artist thought everyday life should be. Everyone wants to feel like they made a little dent in the world by doing whatever they do best. Because, when you make a dent, you achieve what man has been trying to do since the cave days, you achieve immortality. For that, men should have turned to comics. Just look at your funnies page, it's a history of sorts. Charlie Brown's still in the paper and so is Blondie and Katzenjammer Kids and countless others whose creators have died, but the idea, that spark of ingenuity and human expression lives on, greeting you every morning with a silly joke to brighten your day.

Thanks to the following websites for info:

Krazy.com

Don Markstein's Toonopedia

Don Marquis

For more info on history go to:

History of Comics