Richard Felton Outcault

Richard Felton Outcault (January 14, 1863, Lancaster, Ohio - September 25, 1928, Flushing, New York) was an American screenwriter, comic book artist, and painter. Outcault was the creator of the series The Yellow Kid (The yellow boy), from which the comic strip as we know it today was born and developed.

Biography

Outcault began his career as a technical illustrator for Thomas A. Edison and as a humorist for Judge and Life magazines.

Soon he signed for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and in his Sunday color supplement called World he began, on May 5, 1895, the series of comic mega-vignettes Hogan's Alley featuring a suburban kid whose baggy shirt featured the texts. As of January 5, 1896, this shirt was colored, as an experiment, with a particularly difficult color at that time: yellow; in this way the popular expression Yellow Kid ended up filtering from the public to the general title of the series.

When he went to work for Pulitzer rival William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal in October 1896, The Yellow Kid began to appear as a succession of cartoons instead of just one. This, which Outcault carried out at the initiative of Hearst himself, is considered by many theorists the true moment of the birth of the comic.

In 1897, he changed newspapers again, and, for the New York Herald, he began the series Poor Li'l Mose (1901) and Buster Brown (1902-1905). The latter would continue in the New York American from 1906 to 1920.

At the dentist's office (July 1902).

The wheel skates (1903).

The police (1903).

The stork (1903).

The visit of Aunt Carrie (1903).

With a girl's dress (1903).

Shopping (1903).

The twins (1904).

Recado a la butcherería (1904).

The mice (1905).

A surprise for Mom (1905).