The Day After The Day Before
Skip to comments
So yesterday was National Cartoonists Day chosen to be celebrated on May 5 because …
May 5 was chosen because it was the first publication of the comic-strip character called The Yellow Kid.
No, and that is not what the Wiki page Daily Kos linked to says. Here is The Kid’s history of publication.
The South Florida Reporter of May 5, 2025:
This day is held in remembrance of the first comic strip featured in a newspaper.
Not even close. Newspapers had been printing “comic strips” since at least 20 years before The Kid.
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.
Yes. May 5, 1895 was the first newspaper color cartoon featuring The (not yet) Yellow Kid.
Though that National Day Calendar article would mistakenly date the National Cartoonists Day back to 1990. It was actually in 1999 that the National Cartoonists Society gave the day over to cartoonists.
And yesterday a few cartoonists celebrated their day on the funny pages: Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Day by Dave, FurBabies, Half Full (rerun), Off The Mark, Rabbits Against Magic, and Warped (rerun).
Surrounding National Cartoonists Day were Over The Hedge and Broom-Hilda featuring their creators.
A couple of outstanding cartoonists born on May 5 are W. W. Denslow and Floyd Gottfredson.
feature image by Craig Yoe
Comments
Comments are closed.