History of Comics Begins with Yellow Kid

NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS DATE TO OUTCAULT'S YELLOW KID

     COLUMBUS, Ohio -- R.F. Outcault's "The Yellow Kid" wasn't
the first comic strip or even the first continuing character to
appear in one.  But, in drawing the New York City street kid,
Outcault led the development of the comic strip into an American
art form that would entertain and amuse, increase readership,
boost newspaper circulation and sell merchandise.

     "Two distinctive artistic contributions that America has
given to the world are jazz and the comic books," said Richard
Olson, research professor of psychology at the University of New
Orleans.  "The comic book came into existence as reprinted
newspaper art."

     Comic strips became a regular art feature in newspapers
across the county, thanks to the impact of the Yellow Kid.

     Outcault, a native of Lancaster, Ohio, studied art in
Cincinnati and Paris and worked as a technical illustrator for
Thomas Edison.  He was drawing freelance comic art for popular
New York City humor magazines like Judge and Truth, when Joseph
Pulitzer hired him in 1894 to illustrate a new color supplement
to The New York World.

     "In the fall of 1894, his first newspaper work, 'Origin of a
New Species' appeared," said Olson.  "It was six sequential boxes
about a clown and a dog having a picnic."

     "His first six panels were extraordinary.  The strip did not
become common until after 1900."

     Outcault's Yellow Kid first appeared in 1894 in Truth.  The
kid named Mickey Dugan was one of several Irish-slum street
children in a single panel drawn under such titles as "Fourth
Ward Brownies" and "Hogan's Alley."  On Feb. 9, 1895, Truth
published a panel featuring the kid that was reprinted eight days
later in the New York World.

     Pulitzer, according to lore, experimented by using different
colors on Dugan's message-bearing nightshirts to see what had the
most visual impact.  The big ugly, bare-footed kid with the bald
head, big ears and two teeth stood out in yellow.  The single
panel grew to a full page of color.  The Yellow Kid moved from a
role player into
prominence and became a sensation with newspaper readers.

     Newspaper sales increased.  Not to be outdone, William
Randolph Hearst lured Outcault away to The New York Journal and
Journal sales shot up.  Pulitzer hired another artist to do a
competing Yellow Kid.

     "It was a meteoric rise to fame," Olson said.  "There were
Yellow Kid buttons, whiskey, high chairs, post cards, games and
sheet music.  It showed a comic character could so capture the
public fancy, he could sell anything.  We think Disney invented
merchandising, but Outcault did it almost 100 years ago."

     Outcault abandoned the rough-edged kid in 1898, drew "Poor
Li'l Mose" for the New York Herald in 1901-02, and then created
"Buster Brown," the multiple-panel comic strip that took the
world by storm.

     "There were comics before him by important artists, but they
didn't have a continuing cast of characters," said Olson.  "They
didn't have a dominant character and they didn't catch the
public's fancy.  There was no indication that they sold
newspapers.

     "The Yellow Kid is given credit as being the first comic
with enough star status to sell newspapers and merchandise beyond
anyone's dream."

     Outcault was among the first to use word balloons instead of
a caption at the bottom of the illustration, the first to use
sequential panels, and the first to use a continuing cast in a
newspaper feature, Olson said.

     He was one of the first cartoonists to focus on children and
ethnic humor and the first cartoonist to create a popular
character printed in more than one newspaper, which led to
licensing and syndication.

     And, Olson noted, Outcault's creations led to popular
phrases such as "yellow newspapers" and "yellow journalism" to
describe the sensationalization of news stories by the New York
press.  Maurice Horn, editor of Contemporary Graphic Artists,
noted that Buster Brown gave rise to such popular phrases as
"Wait a minute, Buster!" and "Who do you think you are, Buster?"
                                #
Contact:  Richard Olson, (504) 286-6773; rdops@uno.edu

PUBLIC LECTURE:  Olson will present "The Yellow Kid Centennial
Address" in slides and lecture on Feb. 17, 1995, at 7:30 p.m. at
the Ohio Union Conference Theater, The Ohio State University,
1659 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio 43210.  The event is free and
open to the public.


[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Tue, 03 Jan 1995 16:18:33 -0500 (EST)]
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