Article in the Times Union about comics
Rusty
timeline at the end
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=225590
(add &category=LIFE&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=3/7/2004 to the link if it
doesn't work right)
[Article text]
>>>>>>
The love of funnies
The daily three-panel operas parceled out by the comics have made a deep
impression on American life
By STEVE BARNES, Arts editor
First published: Sunday, March 7, 2004
The Oscars last weekend had an estimated worldwide audience of 1 billion
people.
But the Academy Awards happens just one night a year. Before Charles M.
Schulz died in 2000, the cartoonist every single day reached 355 million
people, in 21 languages and three times as many countries, with his
beloved "Peanuts."
And that's only a single strip, one of more than 250 now in syndication.
Such is the power of the newspaper comic strip.
It seems a humble thing, really, the comic strip: 5 5/8 inches wide, 1
1/2 inches high in the daily paper (bigger and in color on Sundays).
Over a few panels a joke is told, a prank executed, a story line
slightly advanced by recurring characters, then it's over. Much of each
day's comics section, admittedly, is pretty uninspired stuff -- worth a
smile at most. The cumulative effect of regular morning encounters,
however, can be powerful. The noted communications scholar Marshall
McLuhan observed that comics, with characters that are both friends of
and stand-ins for readers, "provide a sort of magically recurrent daily
ritual."
Besides, "It's fun to look at pictures, particularly if the pictures are
funny," says comics historian Robert C. Harvey, author of "The Art of
the Funnies."
And readers feel passionately about their comics. When The Washington
Post dumped "Mark Trail" in 1991, 15,000 readers called to complain. The
Post reinstated the strip. A similar uproar, albeit on a smaller scale,
prompted the Times Union in early 1998 to bring back "Mark Trail" after
trying to replace it with something fresher.
A few months earlier, the newspaper had conducted a comics survey that
asked readers what they liked and didn't, and to offer suggestions of
new strips they wanted to see. More than 3,300 people registered their
opinions.
In January of this year, we replaced the strip "Pearls Before Swine"
with "Spot the Frog." More tumult.
*Yellow journalism*
Like jazz and the banjo, comic strips are an American art form, one born
and perfected in halls far from the academies of high art. In the
comics' case, those hallways were newspapers'. The battling giants of
1890s New York City newspapering, William Randolph Hearst (whose family
still owns the Times Union) and Joseph Pulitzer, used comics in their
fierce circulation wars. Bold, graphic, colorful and generally simple in
their language, the funnies were used to make readers out of the massive
immigrant population, for whom the more elevated English of the news
columns was difficult.
The first comic strip is generally credited to R.F. Outcault, who worked
for Pulitzer's New York World. The strip, called "Hogan's Alley" when
introduced in 1895, included a hairless child wearing what looked like a
white nightgown, which Pulitzer's pressmen, experimenting with color,
made yellow as a test of their new presses. Hearst hired Outcault away
from his rival in 1896 and put his new strip, titled "The Yellow Kid,"
at the center of a multipage comics supplement to the Hearst-owned New
York Morning Journal.
The term "yellow journalism" soon became synonymous with the
sensationalist newspapering practiced by the moguls.
"In a matter of months a new cultural form was born," writes comics
historian Maurice Horn in "100 Years of Newspaper Comics."
Comics, Horn continues, are "characterized by a narrative told in a
sequence of pictures, a continuing cast of characters, the inclusion of
dialogue and/or text within the picture frame, as well as by a dynamic
method of storytelling that would compel the eye to travel forward from
one panel to the next." This distinguishes comics from the static
illustrations of the past, Horn writes. He concludes, "The comics are
more than just a sequence of pictures in the same way that the movies
are more than just a succession of photographs."
*Massive expansion*
Newspaper comics exploded in popularity, quantity and quality. Within a
few decades of creation their subject matter expanded to include crowded
urban life, suburban families, fantasy and adventure, the subconscious
and the unconscious. Idiot savants, in the form of scruffy urchins or
peculiar critters, vied for space with every stripe of superhero and
cynic, detective and dimwit, and all manner of animals. Comic strips
addressed both world wars, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, the
civil-rights and anti-war movements and feminism.
Although many comics are merely diverting fun, a small subset of
creators has been causing furors since after World War II. In the 1950s
and '60s, the conservatism of "Gasoline Alley" and liberalism of "Pogo"
outraged some readers -- and some newspaper editors, who refused to
print certain days' strips. "Doonesbury" has rarely pulled its punches
since it debuted in 1970; Johnny Hart has been accused of putting
anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim messages in his "B.C."; "For Better or For
Worse" addresses issues like homosexuality that some find inappropriate
for the funny pages; and "Boondocks" regularly sinks its teeth into
racism and the Bush administration.
"In short," writes Judith O'Sullivan in "The Great American Comic Strip:
One Hundred Years of Cartoon Art," "a reading of American comics is a
reading of 20th-century social history."
*Doing their job*
Although there has been great artistry in comics since their beginning,
the success of individual strips has, more than in any other art form,
been dictated by popularity, not more abstract notions of critical or
aesthetic merit. (One of the rare exceptions is "Krazy Kat." Called
"inarguably the most celebrated comic strip of all time" by Horn, the
strip "never enjoyed a wide audience," according to O'Sullivan. She
attributes its 34-year life span to the fact that it was "beloved" by
old man Hearst himself.)
That's because comics strips are, first and foremost, commercial
enterprises.
"They exist to attract newspaper readers and to make money -- for
newspapers, for the syndicates, for the artists," says comics expert
Harvey, whose other books include "Children of the Yellow Kid," "The Art
of the Comic Book" and "A Centennial Celebration of the Comics." He
says, "As long as strips are popular -- even with a small but vocal
group -- there's a reluctance to end it."
The strips that readers love, in other words, last and last and last.
And last -- sometimes long after creators have died. "Mutt and Jeff" ran
from 1907 to 1983. "Gasoline Alley" has been on comics pages
continuously since 1918. "Prince Valiant," begun in 1937, still appears
every Sunday. "Peanuts" strips, culled from the 18,000-plus Schulz drew
from 1950 to 2000, appear daily. Veteran Mort Walker continues drawing
"Beetle Bailey," launched the same year as "Peanuts."
*Shorter spans*
In contrast, some of the best strips of recent memory had shorter life
spans. Both "Bloom County" and "The Far Side" lasted 15 years before
their respective authors, Berkeley Breathed and Gary Larson, retired
them; Bill Watterson stopped "Calvin & Hobbes" after 10. (Breathed is
back, on Sundays only, with "Opus.")
"That may be the most unusual development of recent comic-strip history
-- somebody who has a strip as popular as those quitting after 10 or 12
years," says Harvey. "I can't remember any other time when anybody did
that; that was 4.5 on the comics' Richter scale."
But other contemporary comics look like they're in for the long haul.
Garry Trudeau's politically satirical "Doonesbury" is now 34 years old.
Lynn Johnston has been limning familial and other social subjects since
1979 in "For Better or For Worse." And Aaron McGruder's "Boondocks,"
with trenchant humor that regularly causes fusses the way "Doonesbury"
used to, had one of the most successful launches in comic-strip history.
It started with 175 papers in 1998 and now has about 250, according to
Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes it.
Each paper that picks up "Boondocks" or other relatively new strips has
to drop another one -- and risk angering readers. But Harvey believes
that the evolution of the art form requires the introduction of new
voices. After Schulz died, only a few hundred newspapers -- out of 2,600
total -- chose to replace "Peanuts" reruns with other titles.
"If you're rerunning old strips," says Harvey, "you're taking up space
that could be occupied by new comics."
<snip>
*A brief history of comics*
Historical context
17,000 B.C.: Tribes depict animals being hunted on the walls of a cave
in Lascaux, France.
1,300 B.C.: Images of Egyptian pharaohs and their activities painted on
tomb walls for 2,000 years.
1511: Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with the
largest serialized story.
1745: English artist William Hogarth creates "Marriage a la Mode," a
six-panel series that bitingly dissects a marriage of convenience. It is
generally considered to be the first modern illustration to advance
sequential art. Other Hogarth illustration series include "The Harlot's
Progress" and "The Rake's Progress."
The first century
1895: R.F. Outcault, a staff illustrator at Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper
The New York World, creates a one-panel cartoon titled "Hogan's Alley,"
featuring a bald boy in a dress. Printers experimenting with color inks
add yellow to his nightgown. He becomes known as "The Yellow Kid," and
"yellow journalism" becomes a synonym for sensationalist newspapering.
James Swinnerton introduces "Little Bears" in The San Francisco Chronicle.
1896: William Randolph Hearst hires Outcault away from Pulitzer to work
for Hearst's New York Morning Journal and makes Outcault's new strip
"The Yellow Kid" the anchor of the first full comics supplement in any
newspaper.
1897: Hearst hires Rudolph Dirks, creator of the first modern comic
strip, "The Katzenjammer Kids." It is the first to incorporate a
multipanel format with speech balloons within the frame. Pulitzer will
eventually steal him, in 1914.
1900. F.B. Opper creates "Happy Hooligan."
1902: Outcault creates "Buster Brown," as suburban and staid as "The
Yellow Kid" is urban and vital.
1905: Winsor McCay creates "Little Nemo in Slumberland," which
introduces the idea of serialized stories. Previously, all strips had
been self-contained episodes, never referring to the previous strip's
activities. Serialized stories don't really take off until the 1920s.
1907: "Mr. A. Mutt" (later "Mutt & Jeff") by Bud Fisher first appears in
The San Francisco Chronicle.
1912: Hearst forms first comic syndicate, International News Service
(later King Features).
1913: "Krazy Kat," previously a character in George Herriman's "Dingbat
Family," debuts as its own strip, also by Herriman. Historians later
will assert it to be the greatest strip ever.
1915: Rube Goldgerg introduces "Boob McNutt."
1918: "Gasoline Alley," by Frank King, first appears in the Chicago Tribune.
1924: "Little Orphan Annie" debuts. The creator is Harold Gray.
1928: "Joe Palooka," by Ham Fisher, is introduced.
1929: Newspaper comic-strip versions of "Tarzan," by Harold R. Foster,
and 'Buck Rogers," by Dick Calkin, debut.
1930: Chic Young introduces "Blondie."
1931: "Dick Tracy," by Chester Gould, debuts.
1934: "Flash Gordon," by Alex Raymond, and Al Capp's "L'il Abner" debut.
1937: Harold Foster leaves "Tarzan," creates "Prince Valiant."
1938: "Superman" debuts. The artists are Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster.
In Italy, Mussolini bans publication of all American comic strips except
"Mickey Mouse."
1941: "Wonder Woman," by William Marsten and H.G. Peters, debuts.
1946: National Cartoonists Society founded with Rube Goldberg as president.
1948: Walt Kelly creates "Pogo." "Rex Morgan, M.D.," by Nicholas Dallis
and Allen Saunders, debuts.
1950: Charles Schulz transforms his magazine strip "Lil Folks" into a
newspaper comic called "Peanuts." At its peak, it has 355 million
readers worldwide, appearing in 75 countries, 2,600 newspapers and 21
languages every day. Mort Walker launches "Beetle Bailey."
1951: "Dennis the Menace," by Hank Ketcham, is introduced.
1954: Mort Walker and Dik Browne create "Hi & Lois."
1956: Jules Feiffer's satirical strips debut in The Village Voice.
1957: "Andy Capp," by Reg Smythe, is first published (in England).
1958: Johnny Hart introduces "B.C."
1960: Bil Keane creates "Family Circus."
1962: "Spider-Man" debuts. The creators are Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby and
Stan Lee.
1970: "Doonesbury," by Garry Trudeau, is syndicated. "Broom Hilda," by
Russell Myers, makes its first appearance.
1973: Dik Browne introduces "Hagar the Horrible."
1977: Jeff McNelly creates "Shoe."
1978: "Garfield," by Jim Davis, debuts.
1979: Lynn Johnston introduces "For Better or For Worse."
1980: Berkeley Breathed creates "Bloom County." Gary Larson starts
drawing "The Far Side." Both quit daily cartooning in 1995.
1985: "Calvin & Hobbes," by Bill Watterson, is introduced. Watterson
retires the strip a decade later.
1989: Scott Adams' "Dilbert" is syndicated.
1995: "Dilbert" is the first syndicated strip on the Web.
Sources: "The Great American Comic Strip," "100 Years of American
Newspaper Comics," "American Comics from 1897 to the Present,"
"America's Great Comic-Strip Artists" and Comic-Art.com.
<<<<<<<<<<
Chris Clarke
<russju...@netscape.net> wrote:
> It seems a humble thing, really, the comic strip: 5 5/8 inches wide, 1
> 1/2 inches high
There's a joke necessary here about getting those dimensions the wrong
way 'round, but I've got a tight schedule today. Can one of you guys
cover for me?
> (bigger and in color on Sundays).
Here too. Thanks.
Rusty
> In article <XH25c.11777$Cb.262002@attbi_s51>, Rusty
> <russju...@netscape.net> wrote:
>
>
>>It seems a humble thing, really, the comic strip: 5 5/8 inches wide, 1
>>1/2 inches high
>
> There's a joke necessary here about getting those dimensions the wrong
> way 'round, but I've got a tight schedule today. Can one of you guys
> cover for me?
>
Is that what those spam messages I've been getting are about?
Increasing my comic strip size, hmmmm.
Biffy the Elephant Shrew
>Is that what those spam messages I've been getting are about?
>Increasing my comic strip size, hmmmm.
Fantagraphics keeps sending me emails about how to "Acquire a
Gigantic Peanuts."
Your pal,
Biffy the Elephant Shrew
"If substituting bugs for raisins in oatmeal cookies is wrong,
I don't want to be right."--Bucky Katt