comic strip

Sequence of several frames of drawings in cartoon style. Strips, which may work independently or form instalments of a serial, are usually humorous or satirical in content. Longer stories in comic-strip form are published separately as comic books. Some have been made into animated films; see animation.

The first comic strip was ‘The Yellow Kid’ by Richard Felton Outcault, which appeared in the Sunday newspaper New York World 1896; it was immediately successful and others soon followed. Some of the most admired early comic strips were the US ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’ and ‘Happy Hooligan’ as well as ‘Krazy Kat’, which began 1910 and ended with the death of its creator, Richard Herriman, 1944. Current comic strips include ‘Peanuts’ by Charles M Schulz (1922– ), which began 1950 and was read daily by 60 million people by the end of the 1960s; the political ‘Doonesbury’ by Garry Trudeau; the British ‘Andy Capp’ by Reginald Smythe (1917–98); and the French ‘Astérix’ by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny, which began in the early 1960s.

The most famous and beloved cartoon characters were devised by Walt Disney from the 1930s; and superheroes such as Superman, Batman, and Flash Gordon are enduringly popular.