Reactron is a fictional supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics , usually as an adversary of Supergirl .
80-646: Reactron first appears in The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #8 (June 1983), in a story written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Carmine Infantino . Ben Krullen is a sergeant serving in the US Army during the Vietnam War , alongside Joshua Clay . Krullen later massacres the inhabitants of a Vietnamese village, with the shock triggering Clay's metahuman powers. Clay seemingly destroys Krullen with his energy blasts, transforming him into
160-552: A syndicate hires people to write and draw a strip and then distributes it to many newspapers for a fee. Some newspaper strips begin or remain exclusive to one newspaper. For example, the Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly originally appeared only in the New York Star in 1948 and was not picked up for syndication until the following year. Newspaper comic strips come in two different types: daily strips and Sunday strips . In
240-428: A "standard" size", with strips running the entire width of a page or having more than one tier. By the 1920s, strips often covered six of the eight columns occupied by a traditional broadsheet paper. During the 1940s, strips were reduced to four columns wide (with a "transition" width of five columns). As newspapers became narrower beginning in the 1970s, strips have gotten even smaller, often being just three columns wide,
320-535: A chain reaction that destroys New Krypton. In Blackest Night , Scarecrow drugs Supergirl with his fear toxin, causing her to believe she is fighting Reactron reanimated as a Black Lantern . Reactron is a metahuman with the ability to generate nuclear radiation and concussive blasts. Reactron is also equipped with a gold Kryptonite heart, which allows him to briefly depower Kryptonians. Reactron appears in Supergirl , portrayed by Chris Browning . This version
400-587: A flock of geese (without anybody mourning their demise). Max and Moritz provided an inspiration for German immigrant Rudolph Dirks , who created the Katzenjammer Kids in 1897—a strip starring two German-American boys visually modelled on Max and Moritz . Familiar comic-strip iconography such as stars for pain, sawing logs for snoring, speech balloons, and thought balloons originated in Dirks' strip. Hugely popular, Katzenjammer Kids occasioned one of
480-430: A full page, and daily strips were generally the width of the page. The competition between papers for having more cartoons than the rest from the mid-1920s, the growth of large-scale newspaper advertising during most of the thirties, paper rationing during World War II , the decline on news readership (as television newscasts began to be more common) and inflation (which has caused higher printing costs) beginning during
560-621: A metahuman capable of generating radioactive energy. blasts. Calling himself Reactron, he surfaces years later and attacks the Doom Patrol , as well as Supergirl. Reactron's origin and background are changed for his appearances after the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity reboot. Now known as Benjamin Krull , he faces the Doom Patrol and Power Girl in his first appearance. Most of his pre- Crisis continuity seems intact, but it
640-409: A publishing hub and imprint with Robert Greenberger , Michael Jan Friedman , Aaron Rosenberg , Peter David , and others through which he has published his novel The Same Old Story and the short story collection, In My Shorts: Hitler's Bellhop and Other Stories as well as contributing to such Crazy 8 anthologies as ReDeus , co-created with Greenberger and Rosenberg, Pangaea , and Tales of
720-488: A secondary strip by the same artist as the main strip. No matter whether it appeared above or below a main strip, the extra strip was known as the topper , such as The Squirrel Cage which ran along with Room and Board , both drawn by Gene Ahern . During the 1930s, the original art for a Sunday strip was usually drawn quite large. For example, in 1930, Russ Westover drew his Tillie the Toiler Sunday page at
800-493: A similar width to the one most daily panels occupied before the 1940s. In an issue related to size limitations, Sunday comics are often bound to rigid formats that allow their panels to be rearranged in several different ways while remaining readable. Such formats usually include throwaway panels at the beginning, which some newspapers will omit for space. As a result, cartoonists have less incentive to put great efforts into these panels. Garfield and Mutts were known during
880-506: A single panel with a single gag, as seen occasionally in Mike Peters ' Mother Goose and Grimm . Early daily strips were large, often running the entire width of the newspaper, and were sometimes three or more inches high. Initially, a newspaper page included only a single daily strip, usually either at the top or the bottom of the page. By the 1920s, many newspapers had a comics page on which many strips were collected together. During
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#1732793475290960-574: A size of 17" × 37". In 1937, the cartoonist Dudley Fisher launched the innovative Right Around Home , drawn as a huge single panel filling an entire Sunday page. Full-page strips were eventually replaced by strips half that size. Strips such as The Phantom and Terry and the Pirates began appearing in a format of two strips to a page in full-size newspapers, such as the New Orleans Times Picayune , or with one strip on
1040-496: A tabloid page, as in the Chicago Sun-Times . When Sunday strips began to appear in more than one format, it became necessary for the cartoonist to allow for rearranged, cropped or dropped panels. During World War II , because of paper shortages, the size of Sunday strips began to shrink. After the war, strips continued to get smaller and smaller because of increased paper and printing costs. The last full-page comic strip
1120-927: A trilogy of Green Lantern novels by Christopher Priest , Mike Baron and Mike Ahn (both novel and trilogy were published by iBooks ), and dozens of MAD reprints, kids storybooks, young adult novels and children's color and activity books based on DC Comics properties. In early 2006, Kupperberg left DC to become senior editor at the Weekly World News . In 2007, he contributed to the Doctor Who short-story collection Short Trips: Destination Prague , and The Avenger Chronicles from Moonstone Books . The Weekly World News ceased publication in August 2007, and in January 2008, Kupperberg became senior editor of WWE KIDS for World Wrestling Entertainment . He
1200-554: A two-tier daily strip, Star Hawks , but after a few years, Star Hawks dropped down to a single tier. In Flanders , the two-tier strip is the standard publication style of most daily strips like Spike and Suzy and Nero . They appear Monday through Saturday; until 2003 there were no Sunday papers in Flanders. In the last decades, they have switched from black and white to color. Single panels usually, but not always, are not broken up and lack continuity. The daily Peanuts
1280-507: A wide range of colors. Printing plates were created with four or more colors—traditionally, the CMYK color model : cyan, magenta, yellow and "K" for black. With a screen of tiny dots on each printing plate, the dots allowed an image to be printed in a halftone that appears to the eye in different gradations. The semi-opaque property of ink allows halftone dots of different colors to create an optical effect of full-color imagery. The decade of
1360-408: Is a former reactor engineer who became Reactron when he was exposed to radiation after a terrorist attack which was stopped by Superman . Ben survived the radiation, but his wife Alyssa did not. Ben blames Superman for his wife's death and swore vengeance on him. He then built an advanced bio-medical exo-suit capable of firing highly concentrated bursts of energy while also giving him super strength and
1440-508: Is a strip, and the daily Dennis the Menace is a single panel. J. R. Williams ' long-run Out Our Way continued as a daily panel even after it expanded into a Sunday strip, Out Our Way with the Willets . Jimmy Hatlo 's They'll Do It Every Time was often displayed in a two-panel format with the first panel showing some deceptive, pretentious, unwitting or scheming human behavior and
1520-400: Is currently executive editor of Charlton Neo and the online webcomics site, Pix-C, for which he has created numerous titles and features, including Paul Kupperberg's Secret Romances , Unusual Tales featuring N.E.O. , "The Scarry Squad," "Edison Corliss' Industrial Steam and Ironworks," "Digger Graves, Paranormal P.I.," and "Blank." He is also one of the seven authors behind Crazy 8 Press ,
1600-733: Is freelancing and consulting for DC Comics, Archie Comics, Moonstone Publishing, Stone Arch Books, Bongo Comics, GIT Corp, and others. He wrote the Harvey Award and Eisner Award nominated Life with Archie series for Archie Comics which began in August 2010 in the second issue of Life With Archie: The Married Life , in magazine format. The series continues the Michael Uslan / Stan Goldberg best-selling Archie wedding series, two ongoing series each featuring one of Archie's two possible futures, one married to Betty Cooper and another married to Veronica Lodge . The series also featured
1680-538: Is now said that his previous battles involved Power Girl instead of Supergirl. Seemingly destroyed after overloading on Negative Woman's energy, he resurfaces unharmed and as a member of the Suicide Squad . Reactron is destroyed when Deadshot punctures his containment suit, causing him to go critical. Reactron, Mister Nitro, Geiger, Nuclear, Professor Radium, and Neutron form the Nuclear Legion in
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#17327934752901760-611: The Checkmate! series six months later. Kupperberg created the Takion series as well. He wrote the syndicated The World's Greatest Superheroes newspaper comic strip with José Delbo from 1981–1985 and the Tom and Jerry newspaper strip from 1990–1991. Kupperberg wrote the first comic book miniseries, World of Krypton in 1979 and co-wrote Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes
1840-626: The Lansing State Journal in two sheets, printed much larger than the final version and ready to be cut apart and fitted into the local comics page." Comic strip historian Allan Holtz described how strips were provided as mats (the plastic or cardboard trays in which molten metal is poured to make plates) or even plates ready to be put directly on the printing press. He also notes that with electronic means of distribution becoming more prevalent printed sheets "are definitely on their way out." NEA Syndicate experimented briefly with
1920-795: The Arion character in The Warlord #55 (March 1982) and the Arion, Lord of Atlantis series was launched in November 1982. That same month saw the debut of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl by Kupperberg and Carmine Infantino . Kupperberg scripted the first appearance of Keith Giffen 's Ambush Bug character in DC Comics Presents #52 (Dec. 1982) A revival of the Doom Patrol series by Kupperberg and Steve Lightle began in October 1987 and Kupperberg and Steve Erwin launched
2000-657: The Flossy Frills series on The American Weekly Sunday newspaper supplement . In the UK and the rest of Europe, comic strips are also serialized in comic book magazines , with a strip's story sometimes continuing over three pages. Storytelling using a sequence of pictures has existed through history. One medieval European example in textile form is the Bayeux Tapestry . Printed examples emerged in 19th-century Germany and in mid 18th-century England, where some of
2080-549: The Internet . Many are exclusively published online, but the majority of traditional newspaper comic strips have some Internet presence. King Features Syndicate and other syndicates often provide archives of recent strips on their websites. Some, such as Scott Adams , creator of Dilbert , include an email address in each strip. Most comic strip characters do not age throughout the strip's life, but in some strips, like Lynn Johnston 's award-winning For Better or For Worse ,
2160-579: The Julius Schwartz -edited Superman , Action Comics , Supergirl , and Superboy titles, as well as the new Doom Patrol , Vigilante , Green Lantern , The Brave and the Bold , Showcase , The Superman Family , House of Mystery , Weird War Tales , Justice League of America , Ghosts , Star Trek , Aquaman , Adventure Comics , The Savage Sword of Conan , and many others. He and artist Jan Duursema co-created
2240-492: The Spider-Man novels Crime Campaign and Murdermoon (both Pocket Books , 1979). He has had short stories published in the anthologies The Further Adventures of Batman Featuring Catwoman ( Bantam Books , 1993), Fear Itself ( Warner Books , 1995), Superheroes ( Ace Books , 1995, edited by John Varley ) and Oceans of Magic ( DAW Books , 2001). His adult novel, JSA: Ragnarok , was scheduled to be published in 2006 but
2320-493: The editorial or op-ed page rather than the comics page because of their regular political commentary. For example, the August 12, 1974 Doonesbury strip was awarded a 1975 Pulitzer Prize for its depiction of the Watergate scandal . Dilbert is sometimes found in the business section of a newspaper instead of the comics page because of the strip's commentary about office politics , and Tank McNamara often appears on
2400-935: The miniatures written on scrolls coming out of their mouths—which makes them to some extent ancestors of the modern cartoon strips. In China, with its traditions of block printing and of the incorporation of text with image, experiments with what became lianhuanhua date back to 1884. The origin of the modern English language comic strip can be traced to the efflorescence of caricature in late 18th century London. English caricaturists such as Richard Newton and George Woodward developed sophisticated caricature styles using strips of expressive comic figures with captions that could be read left to right to cumulative effect, as well as business models for advertising and selling cheap comic illustration on regular subscription. Other leading British caricaturists produced strips as well; for example James Gillray in Democracy;-or-a Sketch of
2480-536: The newspaper war (1887 onwards) between Pulitzer and Hearst . The Little Bears (1893–96) was the first American comic strip with recurring characters, while the first color comic supplement was published by the Chicago Inter-Ocean sometime in the latter half of 1892, followed by the New York Journal ' s first color Sunday comic pages in 1897. On January 31, 1912, Hearst introduced
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2560-441: The 1920s the medium became wildly popular. While radio, and later, television surpassed newspapers as a means of entertainment, most comic strip characters were widely recognizable until the 1980s, and the "funny pages" were often arranged in a way they appeared at the front of Sunday editions. In 1931, George Gallup's first poll had the comic section as the most important part of the newspaper, with additional surveys pointing out that
2640-458: The 1930s, the original art for a daily strip could be drawn as large as 25 inches wide by six inches high. Over decades, the size of daily strips became smaller and smaller, until by 2000, four standard daily strips could fit in an area once occupied by a single daily strip. As strips have become smaller, the number of panels have been reduced. Proof sheets were the means by which syndicates provided newspapers with black-and-white line art for
2720-1055: The 1960s saw the rise of underground newspapers , which often carried comic strips, such as Fritz the Cat and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers . Zippy the Pinhead initially appeared in underground publications in the 1970s before being syndicated. Bloom County and Doonesbury began as strips in college newspapers under different titles, and later moved to national syndication. Underground comic strips covered subjects that are usually taboo in newspaper strips, such as sex and drugs. Many underground artists, notably Vaughn Bode , Dan O'Neill , Gilbert Shelton , and Art Spiegelman went on to draw comic strips for magazines such as Playboy , National Lampoon , and Pete Millar's CARtoons . Jay Lynch graduated from undergrounds to alternative weekly newspapers to Mad and children's books. Webcomics , also known as online comics and internet comics , are comics that are available to read on
2800-413: The 1970s had been waning as an entertainment form. From 1903 to 1905 Gustave Verbeek , wrote his comic series "The UpsideDowns of Old Man Muffaroo and Little Lady Lovekins". These comics were made in such a way that one could read the 6 panel comic, flip the book and keep reading. He made 64 such comics in total. The longest-running American comic strips are: Most newspaper comic strips are syndicated;
2880-474: The 1997 Switcheroonie was a one-time publicity stunt, an artist taking over a feature from its originator is an old tradition in newspaper cartooning (as it is in the comic book industry). In fact, the practice has made possible the longevity of the genre's more popular strips. Examples include Little Orphan Annie (drawn and plotted by Harold Gray from 1924 to 1944 and thereafter by a succession of artists including Leonard Starr and Andrew Pepoy ), and Terry and
2960-540: The 2006 miniseries The Battle for Blüdhaven , working for the Society . They battle Freedom's Ring , who apparently kills Reactron. Reactron reappears in the Superman: New Krypton storyline with a new costume and abilities. Recruited by General Sam Lane as part of his Project 7734, Reactron is equipped with a heart made of gold kryptonite and partnered with Metallo . Reactron and Metallo attack
3040-481: The British magazine Judy by writer and fledgling artist Charles H. Ross in 1867, Ally Sloper is one of the earliest comic strip characters and he is regarded as the first recurring character in comics. The highly popular character was spun off into his own comic, Ally Sloper's Half Holiday , in 1884. While in the early 20th century comic strips were a frequent target for detractors of "yellow journalism", by
3120-682: The Crimson Keep . Kupperberg's brother, Alan Kupperberg (1953–2015), also worked in the comic book field as an artist and writer. Comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of cartoons , arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized , with text in balloons and captions . Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in newspapers and magazines , with daily horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in newspapers, while Sunday papers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections . With
3200-804: The Life of Buonaparte . His contemporary Thomas Rowlandson used strips as early as 1784 for example in The Loves of the Fox and the Badger . Rowlandson may also be credited with inventing the first internationally recognized comic strip character: Doctor Syntax whose picaresque journeys through England were told through a series of comic etchings, accompanied by verse. Original published in parts between 1809 and 1811 in Rudolf Ackermann 's Poetical Magazine , in book form The Tour of Doctor Syntax in search of
3280-859: The NCS, enthusiastically promote the medium, which since the 1970s (and particularly the 1990s) has been considered to be in decline due to numerous factors such as changing tastes in humor and entertainment, the waning relevance of newspapers in general and the loss of most foreign markets outside English-speaking countries. One particularly humorous example of such promotional efforts is the Great Comic Strip Switcheroonie , held in 1997 on April Fool's Day, an event in which dozens of prominent artists took over each other's strips. Garfield ' s Jim Davis, for example, switched with Blondie ' s Stan Drake, while Scott Adams ( Dilbert ) traded strips with Bil Keane ( The Family Circus ). While
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3360-402: The Pirates . In the 1940s, soap-opera -continuity strips such as Judge Parker and Mary Worth gained popularity. Because "comic" strips are not always funny, cartoonist Will Eisner has suggested that sequential art would be a better genre -neutral name. Comic strips have appeared inside American magazines such as Liberty and Boys' Life , but also on the front covers, such as
3440-490: The Pirates , started by Milton Caniff in 1934 and picked up by George Wunder . A business-driven variation has sometimes led to the same feature continuing under a different name. In one case, in the early 1940s, Don Flowers ' Modest Maidens was so admired by William Randolph Hearst that he lured Flowers away from the Associated Press and to King Features Syndicate by doubling the cartoonist's salary, and renamed
3520-490: The United States, a daily strip appears in newspapers on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays. Daily strips usually are printed in black and white, and Sunday strips are usually in color. However, a few newspapers have published daily strips in color, and some newspapers have published Sunday strips in black and white. Making his first appearance in
3600-561: The World ), some have verbal thoughts but are not understood by humans, ( Garfield , Snoopy in Peanuts ), and some can converse with humans ( Bloom County , Calvin and Hobbes , Mutts , Citizen Dog , Buckles , Get Fuzzy , Pearls Before Swine , and Pooch Cafe ). Other strips are centered entirely on animals, as in Pogo and Donald Duck . Gary Larson 's The Far Side
3680-449: The ability to fly. Cat Grant leaks evidence of Supergirl being Superman's cousin, which causes Reactron to starts targeting Supergirl. He is eventually defeated by Supergirl and arrested. Paul Kupperberg Paul Kupperberg (born June 14, 1955) is an American writer and comics editor. He is currently a writer and executive editor at Charlton Neo Comics and Pix-C Webcomics, and a contributing author with Crazy 8 Press. Formerly, he
3760-632: The advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as webcomics . Most strips are written and drawn by a comics artist, known as a cartoonist . As the word "comic" implies, strips are frequently humorous. Examples of these gag-a-day strips are Blondie , Bringing Up Father , Marmaduke , and Pearls Before Swine . In the late 1920s, comic strips expanded from their mirthful origins to feature adventure stories , as seen in Popeye , Captain Easy , Buck Rogers , Tarzan , and Terry and
3840-685: The adventures of Winnie Winkle , Moon Mullins and Dondi , and waited each fall to see how Lucy would manage to trick Charlie Brown into trying to kick that football. (After I left for college, my father would clip out that strip each year and send it to me just to make sure I didn't miss it.)" The two conventional formats for newspaper comics are strips and single gag panels. The strips are usually displayed horizontally, wider than they are tall. Single panels are square, circular or taller than they are wide. Strips usually, but not always, are broken up into several smaller panels with continuity from panel to panel. A horizontal strip can also be used for
3920-738: The anthology You Did What?: Mad Plans And Great Historical Disasters (Harper Paperbacks, 2004). Since 2003, Kupperberg has written numerous non-fiction books for young adults, including: Spy Satellites , The Tragedy Of The Titanic , Astronaut Biographies: John Glenn (a Society Of School Librarians International Honor Book, 2004), Critical Perspectives On The Great Depression , The Nature Of Disease , Edwin Hubble And The Big Bang , The History Of The New York Colony , Rodeo Clowns , Origins Of The Action Heroes: Spider-Man , Cutting Edge Careers In Robotics , and In The News: Hurricanes for Rosen Publishing . From 1991–2006, Kupperberg
4000-623: The characters age as the years pass. The first strip to feature aging characters was Gasoline Alley . The history of comic strips also includes series that are not humorous, but tell an ongoing dramatic story. Examples include The Phantom , Prince Valiant , Dick Tracy , Mary Worth , Modesty Blaise , Little Orphan Annie , Flash Gordon , and Tarzan . Sometimes these are spin-offs from comic books , for example Superman , Batman , and The Amazing Spider-Man . A number of strips have featured animals as main characters. Some are non-verbal ( Marmaduke , The Angriest Dog in
4080-466: The characters. Hearst promptly hired Harold Knerr to draw his own version of the strip. Dirks renamed his version Hans and Fritz (later, The Captain and the Kids ). Thus, two versions distributed by rival syndicates graced the comics pages for decades. Dirks' version, eventually distributed by United Feature Syndicate , ran until 1979. In the United States, the great popularity of comics sprang from
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#17327934752904160-667: The city of New Krypton , where Reactron kills Zor-El , the father of Supergirl . As part of his participation in Project 7734, Lex Luthor sends a robot double of himself with Brainiac on a mission to attack New Krypton, a new planet in Earth's solar system populated by the survivors of the Kryptonian city of Kandor. While there, the Luthor robot tampers with Reactron's body chemistry. Shortly thereafter, Reactron kills himself, causing
4240-594: The comic strips were the second most popular feature after the picture page. During the 1930s, many comic sections had between 12 and 16 pages, although in some cases, these had up to 24 pages. The popularity and accessibility of strips meant they were often clipped and saved; authors including John Updike and Ray Bradbury have written about their childhood collections of clipped strips. Often posted on bulletin boards , clipped strips had an ancillary form of distribution when they were faxed, photocopied or mailed. The Baltimore Sun ' s Linda White recalled, "I followed
4320-1032: The controversial gay marriage of Kevin Keller (the first gay character in the Archie Comics Universe) and ended with the 2014 "The Death of Archie" storyline, which made news all over the world. He wrote the young adult novel Kevin ( Penguin Books ), which was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award and won the 2014 Scribe Award from the International Association of Media Tir-In Writers. He has written Captain Action Classified , children's books based on Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman for Stone Arch Books , and numerous color and activity books based on DreamWorks properties for Dalmatian Press , as well as Mad Libs featuring Archie, DC Superheroes, and Marvel Superheroes. Kupperberg
4400-525: The feature Glamor Girls to avoid legal action by the AP. The latter continued to publish Modest Maidens , drawn by Jay Allen in Flowers' style. As newspapers have declined , the changes have affected comic strips. Jeff Reece, lifestyle editor of The Florida Times-Union , wrote, "Comics are sort of the ' third rail ' of the newspaper." In the early decades of the 20th century, all Sunday comics received
4480-402: The fifties and sixties led to Sunday strips being published on smaller and more diverse formats. As newspapers have reduced the page count of Sunday comic sections since the late 1990s (by the 2010s, most sections have only four pages, with the back page not always being destined for comics) has also led to further downsizes. Daily strips have suffered as well. Before the mid-1910s, there was not
4560-468: The first satirical or humorous sequential narrative drawings were produced. William Hogarth 's 18th-century English caricature include both narrative sequences, such as A Rake's Progress , and single panels. The Biblia pauperum ("Paupers' Bible"), a tradition of picture Bibles beginning in the Late Middle Ages , sometimes depicted Biblical events with words spoken by the figures in
4640-400: The first comic-strip copyright ownership suits in the history of the medium. When Dirks left William Randolph Hearst for the promise of a better salary under Joseph Pulitzer , it was an unusual move, since cartoonists regularly deserted Pulitzer for Hearst. In a highly unusual court decision, Hearst retained the rights to the name "Katzenjammer Kids", while creator Dirks retained the rights to
4720-651: The following year with E. Nelson Bridwell . Kupperberg was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series in 1986 and his other mini-series include The Phantom Stranger (with Mike Mignola and P. Craig Russell ), Power Girl , Peacemaker , Super Powers (with Jack Kirby ), and the first comic book adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe . He has also written movie parodies and humor for Marvel's Crazy Magazine (1977–1983),
4800-571: The history of London. The Reuben , named for cartoonist Rube Goldberg , is the most prestigious award for U.S. comic strip artists. Reuben awards are presented annually by the National Cartoonists Society (NCS). In 1995, the United States Postal Service issued a series of commemorative stamps, Comic Strip Classics , marking the comic-strip centennial. Today's strip artists, with the help of
4880-401: The late 1960s, it became a mouthpiece for Capp's repudiation of the counterculture. Pogo used animals to particularly devastating effect, caricaturing many prominent politicians of the day as animal denizens of Pogo's Okeefenokee Swamp. In a fearless move, Pogo's creator Walt Kelly took on Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, caricaturing him as a bobcat named Simple J. Malarkey, a megalomaniac who
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#17327934752904960-403: The late 19th century. The Yellow Kid is usually credited as one of the first newspaper strips . However, the art form combining words and pictures developed gradually and there are many examples which led up to the comic strip. The Glasgow Looking Glass was the first mass-produced publication to tell stories using illustrations and is regarded as the world's first comic strip. It satirised
5040-505: The members with his drawings and the force of his personality. The comic strip was safe for satire. During the early 20th century, comic strips were widely associated with publisher William Randolph Hearst , whose papers had the largest circulation of strips in the United States. Hearst was notorious for his practice of yellow journalism , and he was frowned on by readers of The New York Times and other newspapers which featured few or no comic strips. Hearst's critics often assumed that all
5120-462: The nation's first full daily comic page in his New York Evening Journal . The history of this newspaper rivalry and the rapid appearance of comic strips in most major American newspapers is discussed by Ian Gordon . Numerous events in newspaper comic strips have reverberated throughout society at large, though few of these events occurred in recent years, owing mainly to the declining use of continuous storylines on newspaper comic strips, which since
5200-685: The picturesque ran to 9 editions between 1812 and 1819, spun off two sequels, a prequel, numerous pirate imitations and copies including French, German, Danish and translations. His image was available on pottery, textiles wallpaper and other merchandise. The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror , an influential English comic series published in London between 1807 and 1819 by Thomas Tegg included some satirical stories in comic strip format such as The Adventures of Johnny Newcome . The first newspaper comic strips appeared in North America in
5280-615: The political and social life of Scotland in the 1820s. It was conceived and illustrated by William Heath. Swiss author and caricature artist Rodolphe Töpffer (Geneva, 1799–1846) is considered the father of the modern comic strips. His illustrated stories such as Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois (1827), first published in the US in 1842 as The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck or Histoire de Monsieur Jabot (1831), inspired subsequent generations of German and American comic artists. In 1865, German painter, author, and caricaturist Wilhelm Busch created
5360-439: The reproduction of strips (which they arranged to have colored in the case of Sunday strips). Michigan State University Comic Art Collection librarian Randy Scott describes these as "large sheets of paper on which newspaper comics have traditionally been distributed to subscribing newspapers. Typically each sheet will have either six daily strips of a given title or one Sunday strip. Thus, a week of Beetle Bailey would arrive at
5440-413: The second panel revealing the truth of the situation. Sunday newspapers traditionally included a special color section. Early Sunday strips (known colloquially as "the funny papers", shortened to "the funnies"), such as Thimble Theatre and Little Orphan Annie , filled an entire newspaper page, a format known to collectors as full page . Sunday pages during the 1930s and into the 1940s often carried
5520-632: The series "Trash" for Britain's 2000 AD , with artist Nigel Dobbyn , and The Online Multipath Adventures of Superman web-animation (1998). Most of his current comic book writing appears in the DC-published Cartoon Network licensed comics on such characters as Johnny Bravo , I.M. Weasel , Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi , and Scooby-Doo . Kupperberg's prose credits include The Atlas to the DC Universe ( Mayfair Games , 1992), The Doom Patrol Sourcebook (Mayfair Games, 1993), and
5600-504: The sports page because of its subject matter. Lynn Johnston 's For Better or For Worse created an uproar when Lawrence, one of the strip's supporting characters, came out of the closet. The world's longest comic strip is 88.9-metre (292 ft) long and on display at Trafalgar Square as part of the London Comedy Festival. The London Cartoon Strip was created by 15 of Britain's best known cartoonists and depicts
5680-468: The strip Max and Moritz , about two trouble-making boys, which had a direct influence on the American comic strip. Max and Moritz was a series of seven severely moralistic tales in the vein of German children's stories such as Struwwelpeter ("Shockheaded Peter"). In the story's final act, the boys, after perpetrating some mischief, are tossed into a sack of grain, run through a mill, and consumed by
5760-451: The strips in his papers were fronts for his own political and social views. Hearst did occasionally work with or pitch ideas to cartoonists, most notably his continued support of George Herriman 's Krazy Kat . An inspiration for Bill Watterson and other cartoonists, Krazy Kat gained a considerable following among intellectuals during the 1920s and 1930s. Some comic strips, such as Doonesbury and Mallard Fillmore , may be printed on
5840-505: The way for some of these strips, as its human characters were manifest in diverse forms—as animals, vegetables, and minerals. The comics have long held a distorted mirror to contemporary society, and almost from the beginning have been used for political or social commentary. This ranged from the conservative slant of Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie to the unabashed liberalism of Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury . Al Capp's Li'l Abner espoused liberal opinions for most of its run, but by
5920-422: Was an editor for DC Comics and executive editor of Weekly World News , as well as a writer of novels, comic books, and newspaper strips . Paul Kupperberg entered the comics field from comics fandom. He and Paul Levitz produced the comics fanzine The Comic Reader between 1971 and 1973, and Etcetera between 1972–1973. Kupperberg has written an estimated 1,000 comic book stories, primarily at DC, for
6000-434: Was assistant editor on Video Action Magazine , one of the first newsstand magazines to focus on the then-burgeoning home video market. He also wrote numerous articles for the magazine. Among his other non-fiction work are many introductions and historic prefaces to various DC collected editions and Archives ('The Essential Showcase', The Flash Archives Volume 1 , Action Comics Archives Volume 2 , etc.), as well as essays for
6080-525: Was bent on taking over the characters' birdwatching club and rooting out all undesirables. Kelly also defended the medium against possible government regulation in the McCarthy era . At a time when comic books were coming under fire for supposed sexual, violent, and subversive content, Kelly feared the same would happen to comic strips. Going before the Congressional subcommittee, he proceeded to charm
6160-483: Was delayed due to the bankruptcy of its publisher, iBooks. It was published in November 2020 by Crazy 8 Press . His other published work includes the young adult novel Wishbone Mysteries: The Sirian Conspiracy (co-written with Michael Jan Friedman , Big Red Chair Books , 1999), as well as color and activity books featuring Firehouse Tales . In 2005, Kupperberg began writing for the weekly satiric and humor tabloid, Weekly World News . From 1981 to 1982, Kupperberg
6240-469: Was on staff at DC Comics , editing such titles as The Flash , Wonder Woman , Jack Kirby 's Fourth World , Impulse , Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt and others. He also edited in DC's Licensed Publishing department, overseeing such titles as MADvertising: A MAD Look at 50 Years of MADison Avenue by David Shayne , Marv Wolfman 's novelization of his landmark comics series Crisis on Infinite Earths ,
6320-722: Was the Prince Valiant strip for 11 April 1971. Comic strips have also been published in Sunday newspaper magazines. Russell Patterson and Carolyn Wells' New Adventures of Flossy Frills was a continuing strip series seen on Sunday magazine covers. Beginning January 26, 1941, it ran on the front covers of Hearst's American Weekly newspaper magazine supplement, continuing until March 30 of that year. Between 1939 and 1943, four different stories featuring Flossy appeared on American Weekly covers. Sunday comics sections employed offset color printing with multiple print runs imitating
6400-561: Was unusual, as there were no central characters. Instead The Far Side used a wide variety of characters including humans, monsters, aliens , chickens, cows, worms , amoebas , and more. John McPherson's Close to Home also uses this theme, though the characters are mostly restricted to humans and real-life situations. Wiley Miller not only mixes human, animal, and fantasy characters, but also does several different comic strip continuities under one umbrella title, Non Sequitur . Bob Thaves 's Frank & Ernest began in 1972 and paved
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