R. F. Outcalt, F. Opper, George Luks, Gus and Rudy Dirks, F. M. Howarth, Bunny Schultz, C. W. Kahles, and others are among the comic strip creators of the first decade of Sunday Comic Supplements as described by Roy L. McCardell, journalist and humorist (and occasional gagman for the cartoonists) who had a hand in starting the newspaper insert.
From the Roy McCardell Wikipedia entry:
New York City newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane became aware of his writing, and offered him a position on the New York newspaper The Evening Sun. Along with his newspaper reporting, McCardell also provided serialized novels to the newspaper. He then moved on to the New York World and finally became a staff member of Puck. McCardell also worked as an editor for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the New York Morning Telegraph and the Metropolitan Magazine.
In 1896, when McCardell learned that the New York World had acquired a color press, he suggested that they use it to produce a comic supplement. Editor Morrill Goddard approved the idea, but all comic artists of the day were already contracted by other newspapers. McCardell suggested using the young artist Richard F. Outcault. Goddard supervised the new supplement, made by Outcault and McCardell, and the first Sunday paper comic supplement in color was the November 6, 1896 issue of the Sunday World, featuring The Yellow Kid.
In 1905 Roy L. McCardell took a look at the fledgling Sunday newspaper comic supplement and the cartoonists who were making it a great circulation booster – yes including McCardell book illustrator Gene Carr.
“Opper, Outcault and Company” by Roy L. McCardell
The Comic Supplement and the Men who Make It
via the Internet Archive
Wow! As a super-fan of the very earliest comics, I am delighted with this rare item from Back Then. How the comic, and cartoonists, were seen by the public, the editors, and themselves helps to bring that era a little bit more to life for us, the cartoon fanatics in this now very far-away time. Thankee kindly.