The Yellow Kid

The Yellow Kid (Mickey Dugan) is an American comic strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'', and later William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal''. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in the comic strip ''Hogan's Alley'' (and later under other names as well), it was one of the first Sunday supplement comic strips in an American newspaper, although its graphical layout had already been thoroughly established in political and other, purely-for-entertainment cartoons.Wood, Mary (2004)
''The Yellow Kid on paper and stage, Contemporary illustrations''
Retrieved October 17, 2007. Outcault's use of word balloons in the ''Yellow Kid'' influenced the basic appearance and use of balloons in subsequent newspaper comic strips and comic books.

The cartoon was created to help educate the wealthy readers of the newspapers in which the comic strip appeared, showing them something of what life was like for people living in poverty. Outcault's aim was to make these wealthy readers more sympathetic to the plight of the poor, rather than judging them, and assuming they deserved to be in poverty.

''The Yellow Kid'' is also famous for its connection to the coining of the term "yellow journalism". The idea of "yellow journalism" referred to stories which were sensationalized for the sake of selling papers, and was so named after the "Yellow Kid" cartoons. Although a cartoon, Outcault's work aimed its humor and social commentary at Pulitzer's adult readership. The strip has been described as "a turn-of-the-century theater of the city, in which class and racial tensions of the new urban, consumerist environment were acted out by a mischievous group of New York City kids from the wrong side of the tracks".

Character

The Yellow Kid was a bald, snaggle-toothed barefoot boy who wore an oversized yellow nightshirt and hung around in a slum alley typical of certain areas of squalor that existed in late 19th-century New York City. Hogan's Alley was filled with equally odd characters, mostly other children. With a goofy grin, the Kid habitually spoke in a ragged, peculiar slang, which was printed on his shirt, a device meant to lampoon advertising billboards.

The Yellow Kid's head was drawn wholly shaved as if having been recently ridden of lice, a common sight among children in New York's tenement ghettos at the time. His nightshirt, a hand-me-down from an older sister, was white or pale blue in the first color strips.

Publication history

A May 1895 ''New York World'' appearance of the character (lower right, above Outcault's signature) who, here, is not yet wearing yellow.

The character who would later become the Yellow Kid first appeared on the scene in a minor supporting role in a cartoon panel published in ''Truth'' magazine in 1894 and 1895. The four different black-and-white single panel cartoons were deemed popular, and one of them, ''Fourth Ward Brownies'', was reprinted on 17 February 1895 in Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'', where Outcault worked as a technical drawing artist. The ''World'' published another, newer ''Hogan's Alley'' cartoon less than a month later, and this was followed by the strip's first color printing on 5 May 1895. ''Hogan's Alley'' gradually became a full-page Sunday color cartoon with the Yellow Kid (who was also appearing several times a week) as its lead character.

In 1896 Outcault was hired away at a much higher salary to William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal American'' where he drew the Yellow Kid in a new full-page color strip which was significantly violent and even vulgar compared to his first panels for ''Truth'' magazine. Because Outcault failed in his attempt to copyright the Yellow Kid, Pulitzer was able to hire George Luks to continue drawing the original (and now less popular) version of the strip for the ''World'' and hence the Yellow Kid appeared simultaneously in two competing papers for about a year.Gordon, Ian (1998). ''Comic Strips and Consumer Culture'', pp. 31–32. Retrieved on 2013-07-09 fro

/ref> Luks's version of the Yellow Kid introduced a pair of twins, Alex and George, also dressed in yellow nightshirts. Outcault produced three subsequent series of Yellow Kid strips at the ''Journal American'', each lasting no more than four months:

* ''McFadden's Row of Flats'' (18 October 1896 – 10 January 1897)
* ''Around the World with the Yellow Kid'' – a strip that sent the Kid on a world tour in the manner of Nellie Bly (17 January – 30 May 1897)
* A half-page strip which eventually adopted the title ''Ryan's Arcade'' (28 September 1897 – 23 January 1898).''The Yellow Kid''
. The Ohio State University Libraries. Retrieved 1 December 2007

Publication of both versions stopped abruptly after only three years in early 1898, as circulation wars between the rival papers dwindled. Moreover, Outcault may have lost interest in the character when he realized he could not retain exclusive commercial control over it. The Yellow Kid's last appearance is most often noted as 23 January 1898 in a strip about hair tonic. On 1 May 1898, the character was featured in a rather satirical cartoon called ''Casey Corner Kids Dime Museum'' but he was drawn as a bearded, balding old man wearing a green nightshirt which bore the words: "Gosh I've growed old in making dis collection."

The Yellow Kid appeared sporadically in Outcault's later cartoon strips, most notably ''Buster Brown''.Wood, Mary (2004)
"Over the Bounding Main (Buster Brown Postcard)"
R. F. Outcault Society's Yellow Kid Site. 10 December 2003. Retrieved October 17, 2007.

Yellow journalism

The two newspapers that ran the Yellow Kid, Pulitzer's ''World'' and Hearst's ''Journal American'', quickly became known as the ''yellow kid papers''. This was contracted to the ''yellow papers'' and the term ''yellow kid journalism'' was at last shortened to ''yellow journalism'', describing the two newspapers' editorial practices of taking (sometimes even fictionalized) sensationalism and profit as priorities in journalism.

Merchandising

The Yellow Kid's image was an early example of lucrative merchandising and appeared on mass market retail objects in the greater New York City area such as "billboards, buttons, cigarette packs, cigars, cracker tins, ladies' fans, matchbooks, postcards, chewing gum cards, toys, whiskey and many other products".Wallace, Derek (18 July 2005). ''The Yellow Kid''. Virtue Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 14, 18 July 2005. Retrieved on 2007-10-16 fro
Virtuemag.org
With the Yellow Kid's merchandising success as an advertising icon, the strip came to represent the crass commercial world it had originally lampooned.

Other versions

Entertainment entrepreneur Gus Hill staged vaudeville plays based on the comic strip. His version of ''McFadden's Flats'' was made into films in 1927 and 1935.

The Yellow Kid made an appearance in the Marvel Universe in the Joss Whedon-written '' Runaways'' story (volume 2, issue 27). In this take on the character, he exhibits superhuman powers.

In the ''Ziggy'' of 16 February 1990, Ziggy points to a smiling old man seated next to him on a park bench and says, "No kidding... You were The Yellow Kid!"

Legacy

The Yellow Kid Awards are Italian comics awards presented by the International Cartoonists Exhibition"Non-American Awards"
Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved 22 December 2015. and distributed at the annual Italian comic book and gaming convention Lucca Comics & Games.

See also

*'' Ally Sloper''
*'' Histoire de M. Vieux Bois''
*''Max and Moritz''
*''The Katzenjammer Kids

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