2. A Brief Overview of Comic Strips

3. Early Comic Strips As we have discussed, the first comics as
we know them today were created by
Rolpohe Topffer in the early 19th century
(1800’s).

6. Early Comic Strips The Yellow Kid 1893
First long running Sunday comic strip in American papers
Words and ideas were expressed on his shirt
The use of color can account for a lot of its popularity

7. Dailies and Sundays

8. Dailies and Sundays – The Funnies
Most of the early comic strips were funny
(we would probably call them silly).
However, by the 1930s readership became
so high that strips with more serious topics
arise.

11. Dailies and Sundays - Super Hero Comics
Mostly Sunday Strips
It is hard for superhero strips to have the same action as a comic book in only four to five frames.
The notable exception is the Spiderman strip which is still written by Stan Lee to this day.

12. Dailies and Sundays Many of the dramatic comics run their
course as television becomes the primary
form of entertainment in America.

13. Today’s Comics Most comic strips today are silly,
heartwarming, or political.

14. Notable Comics

15. Peanuts Regarded as the most influential and well-written comic strip.
Charles M. Schultz
Internationally recognizable characters

16. Kratzenjammer Kids 1897-present Very influential in early cartoons
Stolen from German style
Sparks legal battles between Hearst and Pulitzer.

17. The Spirit
Will Eisner
1940
Launched Eisner’s career as a comic book/graphic novel pioneer.
Considered sexist and racist today.

18. Calvin and Hobbes Relatively short run
Beloved by most readers at the time
Very whimsical

19. Brenda Starr
First comic strip written by a woman

20. Boondocks 1996-2006 Very political and risque
Many paper began putting it on the editorial page

21. The Anatomy of a Comic Strip
Panel
Gutter
Speech Bubble
Thought Bubble

22. The Anatomy of a Comic Strip
Comic Strips on the whole are very easy to follow because they read in a straight line.

23. Anatomy of a Comic Strip
Comic strips in the 1920s and 30’s were much larger. However, printed larger color comics was expensive. As a result, from WWII on the size of comics decreased, both in actual size of the panels and the number of panels included. The last full page comic strip was printed in 1971.

24. Challenges of Comic Strip Writing