The Yellow Kid
Yellow Kid is a redirect to this article. For the comic award, see Yellow Kid (award).
The Yellow Kid, or Mickey Dugan, was the first modern comic strip to appear in the New York World, beginning in 1895. It was invented and drawn by Richard F. Outcault.
He had first appeared previously in the series At the circus in Hogan's Alley, which had appeared in the same newspaper. The character Mickey Dugan is a kid dressed in a yellow nightgown, giving rise to the nickname The Yellow Kid, which soon caught on. His utterances did not appear in the typical speech bubbles that appeared on most of the other characters in this comic series, but were always depicted on his nightgown and his speech was a peculiar ghetto language.
Beginning in 1896, the author's comic had then moved from the New York World to William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, whereupon the New York World hired George Luks to continue the series, so that by 1898, when both series were discontinued, two versions of the comic had appeared in competing newspapers.
It is said that The Yellow Kid gave the Yellow Press its name. This is not definitively proven, but is so argued by Americanist Gert Raeithel in his three-volume history of North American culture. At least in 1897 the New York Press coined the catchphrase "Yellow Kid Journalism" to describe the circulation war between Pulitzer and Hearst. It was probably a play on words, building on the already established term "Yellow Press." In any case, both versions have been used synonymously in the English-speaking world ever since, and in the absence of a similarly descriptive origin story, the legend of the Yellow Kid as the eponym of an entire newspaper genre has persisted.
The Yellow Kid became a great success: the underprivileged of American society could identify with him and with his attempts to escape misery. Additionally, The Yellow Kid made comic strips popular in (American) newspapers, so many publishers were looking for cartoonists for their newspapers. As the strips expanded to longer stories and full pages, the modern comic strip was born.
The Yellow Kid
Questions and Answers
Q: Who created and drew The Yellow Kid?
A: Richard F. Outcault created and drew The Yellow Kid.
Q: In which newspapers did The Yellow Kid appear?
A: The Yellow Kid appeared in the New York World and later in the New York Journal.
Q: What was Hogan's Alley?
A: Hogan's Alley was the comic strip in which The Yellow Kid appeared. It was a Sunday supplement comic strip in an American newspaper.
Q: What was the graphical layout of The Yellow Kid?
A: The graphical layout of The Yellow Kid had already been established in political and other, purely-for-entertainment cartoons.
Q: What was The Yellow Kid's appearance?
A: The Yellow Kid was a bald, snaggle-toothed boy who wore an over-sized yellow nightshirt and hung around in a slum alley.
Q: What was the slang printed on The Yellow Kid's shirt?
A: The slang printed on The Yellow Kid's shirt was a device meant to mock advertising billboards.
Q: What was Hogan's Alley filled with?
A: Hogan's Alley was filled with equally odd characters, mostly other children.
