The first regular
comic strip. It was created by
Richard F. Outcault for the "
New York World" in 1895. It was originally just a large
illustration with a few
captions scattered here and there -- it soon evolved into a full-page color
cartoon. Under the title "
Hogan's Alley," the cartoons always featured
New York City tenement dwellers doing various
funny things. Eventually, a
star emerged -- a
bald-headed kid with
big ears, wearing a bright
yellow nightshirt, on which his
dialogue was often written. Though he was sometimes called "
Mickey Dugan," everyone came to know him as "the Yellow Kid."
In 1896,
William Randolph Hearst, arch-rival of "New York World"
publisher Joseph Pulitzer, raided the "World"'s cartooning staff and lured Outcault away. Outcault continued the cartoon for Hearst's papers and Pulitzer
sued. The
judge decided that Outcault could draw his comic strip for anyone, but the name "Hogan's Alley" belonged to Pulitzer, who promptly grabbed a
cartoonist named
George Luks to draw Hogan's Alley. Meanwhile, Outcault was drawing his cartoon, now called "
McFadden's Row of Flats" for Hearst's "
New York Journal."
Bad blood between Hearst and Pulitzer continued, and like that, the
infamous Hearst/Pulitzer
circulation war was on. From that sprang everything from the modern American comics industry to the term "
yellow journalism," but eventually, both papers just started calling the strip "
The Yellow Kid." The
Kid appeared on everything from
gum and
postcards to
baby clothes and
household appliances. Eventually, Outcault returned to Pulitzer, where he drew a number of other comics, most notably "
Buster Brown."