Beginnings.

The first comic strip, Richard Outcault's The Yellow Kid, appeared in the New York World in 1895. In the next twenty-five years comic strips became one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the United States thanks to the talents of such writer-artists as Out cault, who also created Buster Brown; Rudolph Dirks with his The Katzenjammer Kids; Winsor McCay, particularly with his Little Nemo in Slumberland; Bud Fisher with his Mutt and Jeff, the first daily comic strip; George Herriman, the genius behind the surreal Krazy Kat; George McManus with his Bringing Up Father; and many others. Most comic strips in the first decades of the form relied on humor, earning them the names comics and funnies, and often on fantasy as well. In addition, several adventure strips, including Roy Crane's Wash Tubbs and Richard...