Comic Strip

The first American color comic strip, The Unfortunate Fate of a Well-Intentioned Dog, first appeared in The World on February 4, 1894. It was drawn by Walt McDougall, in collaboration with Mark Fenderson. McDougall is also sometimes credited with the first color cartoon in an American newspaper: a May 21, 1893, cartoon on the cover to the World's first color Sunday comic supplement

German immigrant Rudolph Dirks was the creator of The Katzenjammer Kids, which debuted December 12, 1897 in the American Humorist. He was the first cartoonist to express dialogue in comic characters through the use of speech balloons.

"Katzenjammer 1901" by Rudolph Dirks (1877–1968) Wikipedia Commons

Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appeared in the Thimble Theatre comic strip on January 17, 1929.

In its early days, the strip starred Olive Oyl and her boyfriend, Ham Gravy and Popeye was just a minor character. However, Popeye became so popular that his role was expanded, and he soon replaced Ham as Olive's love interest, going on adventures with her brother, Castor Oyl.

Popeye and J. Wellington Wimpy in E. C. Segar's Thimble Theatre (August 20, 1933 ) http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/ottertorials/2006/12/

Popeye was actually based on a real person named Frank "Rocky" Fiegel who was a tough guy who was quite similar to Popeye.

Mandrake the Magician is considered by many to be the first popular superhero. He was created by Lee Falk and first appeared in a newspaper comic strip on June 11, 1934. Mandrake is a master of magic and disguise, and he uses his powers to fight crime and protect the innocent. He is also a skilled swordsman and hand-to-hand combatant. Mandrake quickly became a popular character, and his strip was syndicated in over 200 newspapers worldwide. He has also been featured in several radio and television series, as well as in comic books and novels.

Mandrake the Magician. By King Features

Peanuts, the syndicated comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, featuring Charlie Brown and his pet Snoopy, was first published in nine newspapers on October 2, 1950.

Schulz detested the name the comics syndicate gave his strip, Peanuts.

The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appeared in newspapers on February 13, 2000, one day after Charles M. Schulz died.

Final Sunday strip, which came out February 13, 2000: one day after the death of Charles M. Schulz.  Wikipedia Commons

With 17,897 strips published in all, Peanuts was arguably the longest story ever told by one human being.

The comic strip character "Dennis the Menace" appeared in The Beano for the first time in issue 452, dated March 17, 1951, although it was released on March 12. It is the longest-running strip in the comic. 

From issue 1678 onwards (dated September 14, 1974) Dennis the Menace replaced Biffo the Bear on the front cover of The Beano, and has been there ever since.

Dennis The Menace had to wait until May 5 of that year to be given his trademark black-and-red striped jumper.

An excerpt from a strip in The Beano issue 3671 dated 9th February 2013.By Source (WP:NFCC#4),Wikipedia Commons

Coincidentally, on March 12, 1951, another comic strip named Dennis the Menace debuted in the US. It began life across 16 newspapers about a five-year-old boy in Wichita, Kansas, called Dennis Mitchell. He was created by Hank Ketcham, who had a four-year-old son called Dennis.

Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, made its debut on June 19, 1978.

When the Garfield cartoon strip first appeared, it was published in 41 US newspapers. It now appears in 2,580 papers and journals worldwide and is the world’s most syndicated comic strip.

Jim Davis, creator of Garfield, named the cat after his grandfather, James Garfield Davis.

To give himself more artistic freedom, Bill Watterson - creator of Calvin and Hobbes, successfully negotiated a deal in 1991 to have his Sunday strip layed-out as an unbreakable half of a newspaper. This angered many editors and even a few cartoonists, but the series was so popular that only 15 newspapers cancelled the strip.

Source The Courier