Celebrate Cartoonists Day With a Little History Lesson!
by GoComicsFrom cave paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphs, humans have a long history of communicating with simple drawings. The modern comic as we know it, however, is a relatively recent development. Today is Cartoonists Day, and we'd like to honor the history of cartooning with a little help from Peter Maresca's Origins of the Sunday Comics!
The very first color newspaper cartoon appeared in the New York World on May 5, 1895 - 121 years ago today - and featured a character who would later become known as the Yellow Kid. (That's him in the blue nightshirt in the bottom-right corner of the top cartoon.)
The Yellow Kid became an instant hit, leading to a merchandising empire and essentially paving the way for full-color Sunday comics to become a routine part of American life.
For more cartooning history, check out Origins of the Sunday Comics!