Observed on May 5th each year, National Cartoonists day honors all those creative ink-stained artists, past and present, and the fascinating pieces they have created. Throughout the years, their talents bring humor, entertainment into our lives while provoking thought and debate, too.
American comic strip writer and artist, Richard Outcault (January 14, 1863 – September 25, 1928) is considered the inventor of the modern comic strip. At 15 years of age, he studied for three years at the McMicken University’s School of Design in Cincinnati. Outcault created the comic strips The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown.
Outcault was a 2008 Judges’ Choice inductee into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
On Sunday, May 5, 1895, the readers of the New York World discovered an exciting new addition in their morning paper. On the pages, they found Outcault’s full-color drawings featuring a big-eared, barefoot little boy with a mischievous grin. The first color installment of the cartoon called Hogan’s Alley would later become known as The Yellow Kid and was the first commercially successful cartoon icon.