THE YELLOW KID
Name: The Yellow Kid
The Yellow Kid emerged as the lead character in Hogan's Alley drawn by Richard F.
Outcault, which became 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 entertainment cartoons. The Yellow Kid was
a bald, snaggle-toothed child with a goofy grin in a yellow nightshirt who hung
around in a ghetto alley filled with equally odd characters, mostly other
children. The kid wontedly spoke in a ragged, peculiar ghetto argot printed on
his shirt, a device meant to lampoon advertising billboards.
Richard F Outcault's last Hogan's Alley cartoon for Truth magazine, Fourth Ward
Brownies, was published on 9 February 1895 and reprinted in the New York World
newspaper on the 17th of that month, beginning one of the first comic strips in
an American newspaper. The character later known as the Yellow Kid had minor
supporting roles in the strip's early panels. This one refers to The Brownies
characters popularized in books and magazines by artist Palmer Cox.
A year and a half later Outcault was drawing the Yellow Kid for Hearst's New
York Journal American in a full page colour Sunday supplement as McFadden's Row
of Flats. In this 15 November 1896 Sunday panel word balloons have appeared, the
action is openly violent and the drawing has become mixed and chaotic.
Outcault drew four black and white, highly detailed single panel Hogan's Alley
cartoons for Truth magazine in 1894 and 1895. The character which would later
become the Yellow Kid had a minor supporting role in these panels. The fourth
cartoon, 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 a new 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 colour cartoon with the Yellow Kid as its
lead character, which was also appearing several times a week. 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."
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 colour strips. The Yellow Kid's image was an early example
of lucrative merchandizing 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."
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 colour strip which was significantly violent and even vulgar compared to
his first panels for Truth magazine. Pulitzer, who had retained the copyright to
Hogan's Alley, hired 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. Outcault's new Yellow
Kid strip at the Journal American had three names, 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 (17 January - 30 May 1897)
Ryan's Arcade (28 September 1897 - 23 January 1898).
With the Yellow Kid's merchandizing success as an advertising icon the strip
came to represent the crass commercial world it had originally lampooned and
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 couldn't 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 ironically, as a bearded, balding old man
wearing a green nightshirt which bore the words, Gosh I've growed old in making
dis collection.
The two newspapers which 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.
In a 1902 interview Outcault remarked, "The Yellow Kid was not an individual but
a type. When I used to go about the slums on newspaper assignments I would
encounter him often, wandering out of doorways or sitting down on dirty
doorsteps. I always loved the Kid. He had a sweet character and a sunny
disposition, and was generous to a fault. Malice, envy or selfishness were not
traits of his, and he never lost his temper."
The Yellow Kid appeared now and then in Outcault's later cartoon strips, most
notably Buster Brown.
Name: The Yellow Kid
The Yellow Kid emerged as the lead character in Hogan's Alley drawn by Richard F.
Outcault, which became 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 entertainment cartoons. The Yellow Kid was
a bald, snaggle-toothed child with a goofy grin in a yellow nightshirt who hung
around in a ghetto alley filled with equally odd characters, mostly other
children. The kid wontedly spoke in a ragged, peculiar ghetto argot printed on
his shirt, a device meant to lampoon advertising billboards.
Richard F Outcault's last Hogan's Alley cartoon for Truth magazine, Fourth Ward
Brownies, was published on 9 February 1895 and reprinted in the New York World
newspaper on the 17th of that month, beginning one of the first comic strips in
an American newspaper. The character later known as the Yellow Kid had minor
supporting roles in the strip's early panels. This one refers to The Brownies
characters popularized in books and magazines by artist Palmer Cox.
A year and a half later Outcault was drawing the Yellow Kid for Hearst's New
York Journal American in a full page colour Sunday supplement as McFadden's Row
of Flats. In this 15 November 1896 Sunday panel word balloons have appeared, the
action is openly violent and the drawing has become mixed and chaotic.
Outcault drew four black and white, highly detailed single panel Hogan's Alley
cartoons for Truth magazine in 1894 and 1895. The character which would later
become the Yellow Kid had a minor supporting role in these panels. The fourth
cartoon, 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 a new 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 colour cartoon with the Yellow Kid as its
lead character, which was also appearing several times a week. 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."
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 colour strips. The Yellow Kid's image was an early example
of lucrative merchandizing 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."
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 colour strip which was significantly violent and even vulgar compared to
his first panels for Truth magazine. Pulitzer, who had retained the copyright to
Hogan's Alley, hired 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. Outcault's new Yellow
Kid strip at the Journal American had three names, 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 (17 January - 30 May 1897)
Ryan's Arcade (28 September 1897 - 23 January 1898).
With the Yellow Kid's merchandizing success as an advertising icon the strip
came to represent the crass commercial world it had originally lampooned and
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 couldn't 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 ironically, as a bearded, balding old man
wearing a green nightshirt which bore the words, Gosh I've growed old in making
dis collection.
The two newspapers which 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.
In a 1902 interview Outcault remarked, "The Yellow Kid was not an individual but
a type. When I used to go about the slums on newspaper assignments I would
encounter him often, wandering out of doorways or sitting down on dirty
doorsteps. I always loved the Kid. He had a sweet character and a sunny
disposition, and was generous to a fault. Malice, envy or selfishness were not
traits of his, and he never lost his temper."
The Yellow Kid appeared now and then in Outcault's later cartoon strips, most
notably Buster Brown.