World Feature Service

The ''New York World'' was one of the first newspapers to publish comic strips, starting around 1890, and contributed greatly to the development of the American comic strip. Notable strips that originated with the ''World'' included Richard F. Outcault's '' Hogan's Alley'', Rudolph Dirks' '' The Captain and the Kids'', Denys Wortman's ''Everyday Movies'', ''Fritzi Ritz'', Gus Mager's ''Hawkshaw the Detective'', Victor Forsythe's ''Joe Jinks'', and Robert Moore Brinkerhoff's '' Little Mary Mixup''.

Under the names World Feature Service and New York World Press Publishing the company also syndicated comic strips to other newspapers around the country from circa 1905 until the paper's demise in 1931.

History

Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'' newspaper began publishing cartoons in 1889. A color Sunday humor supplement began to run in the ''World'' in Spring 1893. In 1894, the ''World'' published the first color strip, designed by Walt McDougall, showing that the technique already enabled this kind of publication. The supplement's editor Morrill Goddard contacted cartoonist Richard F. Outcault and offered Outcault a full-time position with the ''World''. Outcault's Yellow Kid character made his debut in the ''World'' on January 13, 1895. The kid appeared in color for the first time in the May 5 issue in a cartoon titled "At the Circus in Hogan's Alley". Outcault weekly '' Hogan's Alley'' cartoons appeared from then on in color, starring rambunctious slum kids in the streets, in particular, the bald kid, who gained the name Mickey Dugan. The strip's popularity drove up the ''World''s circulation and the Kid was widely merchandised. Outcault — and much of the World's Sunday supplement staff — left for William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal'' on October 18, 1896. George Luks took over with his own version of ''Hogan's Alley''; but the Yellow Kid's popularity soon faded, and Luks' version ended in December 1897.

After ''Hogan's Alley'', the ''World'' published a number of comic strips from the late 1890s until the paper's 1931 demise. The prolific cartoonist C. W. Kahles was responsible for numerous comic strips for the ''World''. He is credited as the pioneer of daily comic strip continuity with his ''Clarence the Cop'', which he drew for the ''World'' beginning in the latter 1890s. It introduced to newspapers the innovation of continuing a comic strip story in a day-to-day serial format, and is also considered to be the first police strip. Kahles' ''Sandy Highflyer, the Airship Man'' (1902–1904) is considered the first aviation comic strip. The cartoonist and comics historian Ernest McGee called Kahles the "hardest working cartoonist in history, having as many as eight Sunday comics running at one time (1905-1906) with no assistants to help him."

Clare Victor Dwiggins joined the ''World'' in 1897. He created a wide variety of gag panels. In 1904, after winning $3,000 at the racetrack, cartoonist George McManus went to New York City and a job with the ''World'', where he worked on several short-lived comic strips. One of them, ''The Newlyweds'' (later renamed ''Their Only Child'') is considered one of the first comic strips to depict the lives of the typical American family. Gene Carr and Milt Gross were also notable for the number of their comic strips published and distributed by the ''World''.

Beginning in about 1905, the company began syndicating strips to other newspapers under the name World Feature Service; in circa 1910 it added the syndication division New York World Press Publishing (also known as Press Publishing Co.).Hudson, Frederic, Alfred McClung Lee, and Frank Luther Mott. ''American Journalism 1690-1940'', Volume 4 (Psychology Press, 2000), p. 591.

Many notable cartoonists were on staff at various times at the paper, including Charles W. Saalburg, V. Floyd Campbell, Richard F. Outcault, Walt McDougall, George Herriman, Harry Grant Dart, J. Campbell Cory, George Luks, Clare Victor Dwiggins, C. W. Kahles, Carl Thomas Anderson, Charles A. Voight, Jack Callahan, Frank Fogarty, Walter Berndt, George McManus, Leslie Turner, Harry Haenigsen, and Percy Crosby