Ok, who came first? Charles Schulz implied that Popeye was the first comic strip character. Is this correct? So many come to mind, but I don’t know the chronology. What was the first comic strip (funnies) to appear in the papers? (Now, I’m not talking about political cartoons here. I suppose I should specify “serial” cartoon characters. I know, many such characters who found entered into the breakfast food advertising business have since been bumped off by a cereal killer ha-ha!)
The first recurring cartoon character in the newspapers was the Yellow Kid. I can’t remember the newspaper off hand but I’m sure someone will be along with that info shortly.
Richard Felton Outcault’s “The Yellow Kid” premiered in Truth Magazine in 1895 and was picked up by The New York World newspaper the following year to become the first “successful” newspaper strip in US history.
A side note, Outcault’s patron was none other than Thomas Alva Edison.
Good point. It’s easy to overlook the literal meaning of the word. I wouldn’t hesitate to call Dennis the Menace or The Far Side strips, although it isn’t technically correct.
How do you define a “strip cartoon”? (No wise cracks , please.) Do you mean, like Ziggy for example, is just one “cell” as opposed to Peanuts being displayed in a row (strip) of “cells”?
The Far Side, Dennis, Family Circus, Ziggy, etc., are all referred to as ‘Panel’ cartoons, and are usually square. The dialog can also be either within the panel (balloons) or below (captioned).
Then we’ll turn our tommy guns
on the screaming ravaged nuns
and the peoples voice will be the only sound.
-P. Sky
The Yellow Kid did appear in strips, later, and one of his strips is often stated to be the first strip with a regular character.
As the result of a contract war, the Kid later moved from the World to the Journal. The actual title of the strip was “Hogan’s Alley”, and another artist kept doing it for the World, as it seemed that under the law of the time, the World, owned only the title. In the Journal, the Kid moved to “McFadden’s Flats.” A similar contract war a few years later produced the schism between “The Katzenjammer Kids” (original title) and “The Captain and the Kids” (original artist), both of which were still going strong when I was a child.
I can’t imagine what Schultz could have meant by calling “Popeye” first (if he did). Popeye wasn’t the original star of “Thimble Theater”, “Thimble Theater” wasn’t the first strip by Segar, and Segar wasn’t even remotely the first cartoonist.
Schulz probably meant Popeye was the first hugely successful newspaper strip character - he was the first newspaper strip character to jump to the movies (characters like Mickey Mouse and Superman had their start in movies and in magazines, and became newspaper strips later), and the first newspaper strip to be heavily merchandised.