Comic Books

Gag-based humor was the hallmark of the earliest American newspaper comic strips from their origins in the mid-1890s. Strips like Buster Brown (Richard F. Outcault) and The Katzenjammer Kids (Rudolph Dirks) created the grammar of the daily strip, which was refined by early-20th-century works like Krazy Kat (George Herriman), Mutt and Jeff (Bud Fisher), Bringing Up Father (George McManus), Blondie (Chic Young), and Li’l Abner (Al Capp). The earliest comic books were an attempt to cash in on the success of these strips by collecting them as magazine-size periodicals. When the easy supply of prepublished strips dissipated, packagers turned to original material. Titles like Famous Funnies and New Comics emerged in the mid-1930s as clear imitators of the comic strip tradition.

In the 1940s, Dell Comics solidified the children's comic book market when it secured the rights to produce comic book versions of Disney's animation stars. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories was launched in 1940 and ran for 22 years, publishing the adventures of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other characters known from the silver screen. The success of this title opened the door for works based on the characters from the Warner Brothers studio Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (1941), as well as Walter Lantz and Hanna-Barbera. By the 1950s, the leading publisher of comics for young children was Harvey Comics, who had a string of hits, including Little Audrey (1952), Casper the Friendly Ghost (1952), and Richie Rich (1960). The profusion of anthropomorphic characters and animation visual styles largely defined children's comics in the post-War period, an era in which some of the most notable comic book humorists plied their trade (Carl Barks on Donald Duck, Floyd Gottfredson on Mickey Mouse, and John Stanley on Little Lulu).

The early syndicated comic strip Buster Brown was translated and published in book form in France in the early 20th century.

Source: Richard Felton Outcault/Wikimedia Commons.

[Page 147]Humor comic books addressed to an audience of teenagers have their origins with Archie (1942). The adventures of the clean-cut, all-American boy and his friends in Riverdale became a cultural sensation, not only spinning off a variety of titles— Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica (1950), Archie's Pal Jughead (1949)—but launching a raft of copycat titles such as Andy (1948), Ernie (1948) and Dudley (1949). Though they reached their sales peak in the late 1960s, Archie comics have continued to be published uninterrupted to the present, the longest running comic book character other than superheroes Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

The 1950s witnessed a dramatic tonal shift in the area of humor comics. While previous comics for children and teens had featured innocent situations and gags, the creation of MAD in 1952 ushered in a new kind of biting satire. Created and initially edited by the influential humor cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, MAD began as a full-color comic book before changing its format in 1954 to become a black-and-white magazine. MAD cast a skeptical eye on American media culture, regularly lampooning film, television, and advertising. With its distinctive satiric tone, MAD fundamentally altered the landscape of humor comic books, ushering in an era of cynicism and irony. The success of MAD made it ripe for imitations, including Crazy (1953), Eh! (1953), Wild (1954), Panic (1954), Trump (1957), Cracked (1958), and Help! (1960).

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