Ohio State has two classic American comic strips on exhibit this quarter: “The Yellow Kid: Hero of Hogan’s Alley” and “Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend.”
“Hogan’s Alley,” created by Richard Felton Outcault, debuted in 1895 and ran in New York newspapers until 1898. The strip features Mickey Dugan, also known as the Yellow Kid, who has been described as the first commercially successful comic strip superstar. The Kid’s image was used on a wide range of products from key chains and collector cards to dolls and sheet music.
“Marketing for the Yellow Kid took off very early,” said Lucy Caswell, curator at the Cartoon Research Library. “Even after 1933 they were still using him (to sell merchandise).”
“The Yellow Kid” was so popular he became a prized item in the struggle between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst in the New York newspaper wars – which resulted in two competing versions of the Kid being drawn after Outcault moved his creation from Pulitzer’s New York World to Hearst’s New York Journal.
In the mid-1890s, Pulitzer and Hearst developed a new type of journalism in order to increase circulation and advertising revenue. They produced newspapers that featured scandalous stories and ran extra editions with gigantic, screaming headlines.
Some scholars have coined the phrase “yellow journalism” to describe New York’s sensational and unreliable news coverage during the Spanish American War in 1898 while others believe it developed as a result of the struggle between Hearst and Pulitzer over Outcault’s “Yellow Kid.”
Caswell said she believes there is a connection between the Kid and the phrase yellow journalism. She referenced a November 1995 INKS: Cartoon and Comics Art Studies article by Mark D. Winchester that used editorial cartoons from various papers throughout the mid- to late-1890s that contained references to both the “Yellow Kid” and yellow journalism.
Tom Schwartz, associate professor in the School of Communication, said in an e-mail there is no clear explanation for how the term came to be.
“Because the ‘Yellow Kid’ was so popular during this period, some historians have speculated about the connection between the term and the colored cartoon,” he said.
The physical appearance of Mickey Dugan might also have something to do with the term. A bright yellow nightshirt covers the entire body of the Kid – leaving only his bald head and bare feet exposed – and his shirt is always adorned with political messages written in large black font.
“Outcault was trying to figure out how to include words in the drawings,” Caswell said. “And this was just one way that he could see to do it.”
The words on Dugan’s shirt are written to suggest a heavy New York accent. Caswell said writing dialogue in order to portray a character’s social or cultural background was common during that time.
Because of political content, the strip was not made for children, but both children and adults can find amusement in the odd antics of the “Hogan’s Alley” kids, she said.
“In the ‘Yellow Kid’ – in ‘Hogan’s Alley’ – we have politics,” she said. “It’s not funny in the way ‘FoxTrot’ or ‘Zits’ was. We look at the pictures because what the children do is funny or interesting.”
Caswell said the general public does not need any previous knowledge of the “Yellow Kid” to enjoy the exhibit. People will be able to understand what the comic is about and why it is funny if they give the pages more than a quick glance, she said.
“Clearly, the ‘Yellow Kid’ is the first commercially successful comic strip,” she said. “So, to see these pages is a real privilege.”
The same goes for Winsor McCay’s “Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend,” Caswell said.
Compared to Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” because of its bizarre nature, “Rarebit Fiend” is based on the idea that gluttony causes nightmares. Each episode works from the same premise: A character has a nightmare caused by overindulgence in Welsh rarebit – a type of melted cheese served over toast – and awakens at the end of the episode.
The strip ran from 1904 to 1911 in the New York Evening Telegram and was revived for a short run in 1913.
Caswell said the comic strip medium is about the relationship between visual and verbal content and “Rarebit Fiend” is an excellent example of how to combine the two. The panels of the strip seem to move and expand frame by frame as if they were film, she said.
Jenny Robb, a visiting assistant curator from the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum, expressed similar sentiments.
“He was a pioneer in animation,” she said. “McCay was versatile and incredibly talented.”
His experimentation on paper eventually came to life on screen. Robb made reference to McCay’s 1914 animated film, “Gertie the Dinosaur,” which McCay interacted with on stage during his Vaudeville tour. Seeing the character in motion blew the minds of New Yorkers, and eventually, the entire country when it was released in theaters nationwide.
Robb said “Rarebit Fiend” may not have been as popular as McCay’s better known work, “Little Nemo in Slumberland,” because it doesn’t have continuing characters. She said “The Far Side” is similar in that respect.
“People get used to characters,” she said. “They see them everyday in the paper – the characters become their friends. That’s one way a comic strip gets a following.”
Robb said “Rarebit Fiend” is a hidden treasure worth seeing, especially for those who are not familiar with McCay’s work.
“(Both exhibits) show us aspects of the early comic strip that I think most people don’t know about,” Caswell said. “They are amazing.”
“The Yellow Kid: Hero of Hogan’s Alley” can be seen at the Cartoon Research Library until Jan. 13 and “Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend” will be on display in the Philip Sills Exhibit Hall of the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library through Dec. 1.
