Comic strips and comic books have been two mainstays of American culture during the entire twentieth century. Comic strips rapidly became a defining feature of modern American culture after their introduction to newspapers across the nation in the first ten years of the twentieth century. Likewise comic books captured the imagination of many Americans in the late 1930s and early 1940s, particularly after the appearance of costumed heroes such as Superman, Batman, and Captain Marvel. From the beginning, comics produced distinct, easily recognized characters whose images could be licensed for other uses. Comic characters united entertainment and commerce in ways that became ubiquitous in American culture.

Although the origin of comic strips is generally traced to the first appearance of the Yellow Kid—so named because the printers chose his nightshirt to experiment with yellow ink—in the New York World in 1895, the antecedents of comics are somewhat...