European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 11, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse By Hugh a. Mulligan the associated press ust about a Century ago american newspaper readers fell in Jove with a Jug eared Barefoot Gap toothed Urchin who spoke Street smart Wisdom in dialogue printed on his flour sack Nightshirt. The Romance changed the shape of the nation s mass pop culture. Out of it came the comics bringing humor and vicarious adventures adding new words to the american language spawning songs movies and Broadway musical comedies As Well As influencing the pop Art painting movement. But a not so funny thing has happened to the comics As they near their 100th birthday they Are charged with rampant sexism surveying violence eroding family values and undermining political correctness. For instance some editors dumped Andy Capp the scruffy Little British pub Crawler and quintessential soccer Hooligan because of the Way he treated his lady. The Randy general track in panting Pursuit of miss Huxley in Beetle Bailey was strafed by feminists. More than 50 newspapers either cancelled or furloughed the popular family strip for better or for worse because of a five week sequence in which one of the characters announced his homosexuality a number of papers Are still undecided whether doonesbury belongs on the comics or the editorial pages. And it s been years since Hagar the horrible draped a Damsel across his shoulders. Looting and pillage Are acceptable behaviour for a marauding Viking but Date rape is out. Even the elegantly drawn meticulously researched Prince valiant praised by educators is jousting with readership surveys that suggest today s to nurtured audience no longer has time for printed narratives. Today s comic pages had their genesis in the Cut Throat newspaper circulation wars near the turn of the. Century that engaged the imaginations and bankrolls of press Barons William Randolph Hearst Joseph pulitzer James cordon Bennett and Joseph Medill Patterson. When the Public had its fill of trans Atlantic yacht regattas and Cross country motor car races of reporters tracing missing missionaries in Africa or circling the Globe in less than Jules Verne s 80 Days pulitzer turned to artist Richard Felton Outcault to attract new readers to his new York world via cartoon comedy. With the urbanization of America already under Way Outcault on May 5,1895, unveiled in Black and White a picaresque set of slum characters dwelling in the tenements of Hogan $ Alley. That s when the nameless Street Urchin appeared. The kid made journalism history a few months later when composing room Boss Charles Saalburg decided his Nightie rather than the fashion Page was made to order to test the world s new four color rotogravure presses. Yellow was the color chosen and the yellow kid became so instantly popular that Hearst promptly waved his Check Book and appropriated Outcault for his new York morning journal. Pulitzer bought him Back and when outbid again by Hearst hired George Luks later associated with the historic Ashcan school of Art to draw a rival yellow kid. Thus the term yellow journalism entered the language the first of Many to come from this new cultural medium. Using the yellow kid As his cover Star Hearst introduced the american humorist the first sunday color comics supplement or As he touted it eight pages of polychromatic effulgence that make the Rainbow look like a Lead daily cartoons help shape american life the yellow kid the first comic to use color is the origin of yellow journalism cartoon historian Rick Marschall holds an Early example of George Harriman s popular newspaper strip crazy Kat greetings to the 364i tactical fighter Wing command soon most of America was prostrate in obeisance to the new entertainment Kings sprawled on the living room carpet sunday after sunday keeping up with the slapstick antics of Maggie and Jiggs the Katze Jammer kids Mutt and Jeff the Gumps Barney Google and his nag spark plug and a Host of others. As . Mencken noted in the american language the terse comic strip dialogue written mostly in balloons enlivened the native idiom with words and phrases like jeep Goon drugstore Cowboy yes we have no bananas Zeebie Jee Bies horsefeathers red hot Mamma and you Tell after adventure strips like Terry and the pirates Flash cordon Buck Rogers scorch Smith and Jungle Jim appeared in the 30s, new action words were born wham pow Socko and even former president Reagan s name for the soviet Union the evil Empire was first used to describe the realm of Ming the merciless in Flash cordon. After women got the vote and joined the work Force in droves family entered comics were joined by working girl strips like Winnie Winkle Tillie the toilet Dixie Dugan somebody s Steno and Brenda Starr drawn by a woman Dale Messick. Almost from the beginning politics and a social conscience hovered Over the drawing Board. There was a lot of politics in the yellow kid pointed out cartoon historian and critic Rick Marschall of Ardsley pa., who has written 23 books on comic strips and is an avid collector Outcault Drew a huge panel with Over 100 characters and had lots of room in balloons and banners As Well As on the kid s Nightshirt to poke fun at William Mckinley William Jennings Bryan. Winsor Mccay who Drew Little Nemo in Slumberland had been an editorial cartoonist and took up a whole Range of social issues like women s suffrage hunger and Urban blight. Mutt and Jeff the first daily strip lampooned William Taft and Charles Evans Hughes and other political new Deal zealots put pressure on editors to curb the rugged individualism and conservative views permeating Little orphan Annie drawn by self made millionaire Harold Cray. Gray s loathing of government controls during world War ii despite daddy warbucks staunch patriotism extended even to a caustic caricature of his neighbourhood Gas rationing official. You Only had to read one panel of i Lanberto know where Al Capp stood politically Marschall says. His blatant stereotypes of feminists hippies and Vietnam War protesters were social satire at its most Savage. He took his scorn for Folk Singer Joan Baez to the Max with Joanie Pheanie Complete with guitar love beads Bare feet Buck Teeth and flies circling around her Mort Walker creator of both Beetle Bailey and i and Lois Points out that Walt Kelly did a lot of political stuff in Pogo. He did Lyndon Johnson As a mule and took on sen. Joe Mccarthy with his devastating sen. Simple j. Malarkey. And of course Gary Trudeau is always in hot water with Walker whose Lampoon of army life appears in More than 1,500 newspapers admits to haying toned Down the sexy stuff after getting a barrage of mail from feminists. I dress miss Huxley More modestly now in business attire the cartoonist says in an interview in his Stamford conn., studio. The general does t Leer at her anymore and he always gets the axe. I had always drawn him As the lecher that he is without condoning it but they thought i was promoting historian Marschall who served As a cartoon editor at United features the Chicago Tribune Syndicate and Field enterprises believes that Overall it s More difficult being a cartoonist these Days because they have to jump though hoops. Critics Are More vocal editors More sensitive and Syndicate sales departments Are much More Murray Tinkelman profess off illustration at Syracuse University regards comic strip Art along with jazz As America s unique contribution to the arts yet Europe was much quicker at recognizing its cultural value. In France where the comic Book has been elevated to the graphic novel cartoon Art was taken seriously almost from its Start. The louvre Early on gave a one Man show to Tarzan drawn by Burne Hogarth. And in Europe the yellow kid Statuette awarded for the Best in cartoon Art is As prestigious As an Oscar. American museums As cartoonist Jerry Robinson has pointed out were More interested in mounting exhibits of Roy Lichtenstein s pop Art pair Tings of comic characters than originals of the strips themselves. If the Art world was slow to recognize a new Art show business was not at the turn of the Century the yellow kid was a hit musical. Victor Herbert in 1908 wrote the score for Little Nemo then Broadway s most expensive production. Arthur Lake played Harold teen in a silent film and when talkies came along he was Dagwood in dozens of Blondie films. Mickey mouse first appeared in the 1928 animated Short Steamboat Willie became a newspaper strip three years later and went on to Foster a Fortune 500 worldwide Empire of movies theme Parks toys and novelties. Radio to series and specials and an endless flow of musicals and movies cashed in on the popularity of crazy Kat red Ryder Jungle Jim Batman Superman Popeye l Habner Dick Tracy Sheena Queen of the Jungle peanuts and so Many others Down to this season s Dennis the menace. Bit from the past Al Capp mixed political satire with the tales of the Friendly folks in i Terry and the pirates " took readers to War and once sent greetings tobit Burgas Germany. Heie Are some selected bits of comics trivia when world War ii broke out comic strip character Joe Paloska immediately enlisted and president Franklin d. Roosevelt publicly thanked cartoonist Ham Fisher. Tillie the toilet joined the was. Orphan Annie mustered her Young readers into the Junior commandos to collect scrap Metal tinfoil and paper. Terry and the pirates were already Busy fighting off the japanese invasion of China. Tiny Tim donated his dog to the k-9 corps while Prince valiant valiantly took on the Hun. Because of wartime passions and prejudices the Katze Jammer kids were renamed the Captain and the kids in world War i and after Pearl Harbor the Green Hornet s faithful japanese servant Cato was born again As r faithful filipino. Brenda Starr girl reporter started off of the drawing Board As a Gal gangster. War Ace Eddie Rickenbacker helped write the Story line for Ace Drummond Dashiell Hammett of the maltese Falcon Fame plotted some of the doings of secret agent x-9. Rex Morgan . Was the creation of or. Nicholas Dallas a practising psychiatrist and wonder woman was the brainchild of psychologist William mar Stan novelist John Steinbeck proposed that l i Launcr creator Al Capp be Given serious consideration for the Nobel i Texas spinach growers erected a statue to Popeye. Astronauts aboard the Apollo 10 Moon shot named their command ship peanuts and their lunar module snoopy. Skeezix of gasoline Alley one of the few strips in which characters advanced in age saw service in world War ii and then worried about his son going off to Vietnam. Echoing the Vietnam peace Niks Rodney the Spear Carrier in the we Ord of id resisted going off to the crusades. Apple Mary a Street Vendor during the great depression became suburban do gooder Mary Worth when the Economy recovered. The associated press 18 the and stripes wednesday August 11, 1993 the stars and stripes 19
