Y is for The Yellow Kid - The Birth of The American Comic Strip
Although later comic icons such as Superman, Mickey Mouse, and Charlie Brown would become more globally recognizable, The Yellow Kid occupies a singular historical position: it stands at the point where cartooning, mass media, urban culture, advertising, and serialized storytelling converged into what would become the comic strip industry and eventually the comic-book medium itself.
The history of The Yellow Kid is not merely the story of one comic character. It is the story of industrialized American media at the dawn of the twentieth century, the rise of immigrant urban culture, technological innovation in color printing, and the emergence of modern mass entertainment.
Recommended reading list for this episode:
Children of the Yellow Kid: The Evolution of the American Comic Strip by RC Harvey (1998)
The Yellow Kid: A Centennial Celebration of the Kid Who Started the Comics
Comic Strips and Consumer Culture 1890–1945 by Ian Gordon
The Comics: The Complete Collection by Brian Walker
The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips by Ron Goulart (1995)
American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide by Allan Holtz
Masters of American Comics - John Carlin Paul Karasik, editors
The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard & Dale Crain
Winsor McCay: His Life and Art
Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman
Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy by Bill Griffith
The Comic Strip Century by Bill Blackbeard
The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825 by David Kunzle
Comic Art in America: A Social History of the Funnies, the Political Cartoons, Magazine Humor, Sporting Cartoons, and Animated Cartoons by Stephen Becker
COMICS A-Z is the podcast that showcases the history of sequential art: comic books, comic strips, the characters, their creators, one letter at a time. Each episode highlights an interesting aspect of the long history of comics, as a creative medium and a growing industry.
COMIC A-Z is hosted by Kevin Cleary, a former executive with First Comics, Classics Illustrated Comics, and TV Comics. Kevin was also the Sales Director for the Dream Factory chain of 22 stores and Purchasing Director for Heroes World Distribution, the 3rd largest comic book, trading card, and toy distributor in the country.
Kevin was an advisor to the Overstreet Price Guide, The Overstreet Premium Ring Guide and a columnist/feature writer for the Comic's Buyers Guide, Overstreet Monthly, and Wizard Magazine.
He was the founder of Quantum Licensing, a company that produced pins, rings, and other licensed comic book related merchandise. He even wrote issue #4 of THE MUNSTERS from TV Comics.
Kevin currently works in Hollywood as a literary manager and occasional producer.
This podcast is made by humans. Accept no substitutes.
