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Richard Felton Outcault - Yellow Kid and Buster B

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Comics Start Price:16,000.00 USD Estimated At:50,000.00 - 75,000.00 USD
Richard Felton Outcault - Yellow Kid and Buster B
<B>Richard Felton Outcault - Yellow Kid and Buster Brown Hand-Colored Sunday Comic Strip Art Original Art, dated 11-3-07 (American-Journal-Examiner, 1907).</B></I> Here's a sensational piece for comic strip art collectors -- the original art for the November 3, 1907 <I>Buster Brown</B></I> Sunday, titled "Strange Things Do Happen To." This remarkable Sunday featured a rare crossover between two of R.F. Outcault's greatest creations; Outcault's promethean creation, the slum kid Mickey Dugan, who was dubbed the Yellow Kid, and the merry prankster, Buster Brown. The Yellow Kid appeared in the <I>Buster Brown</B></I> feature on only four occasions, twice in 1907, and twice again in 1910. This beautiful, hand-colored original features a double-portrait of two of the oldest and most irascible tykes in comic strip history. Yellow Kid originals are exceptionally rare. Only one <I>Hogan's Alley</B></I> original starring the Kid is known to exist, while only two of the <I>Buster Brown</B></I> strips co-starring the Kid have surfaced. Richard Felton Outcault was so celebrated for his creations of the Yellow Kid and Buster Brown, that upon his death, newspapers credited him as the creator of the comic strip itself. In 1894, Outcault began illustrating scenes that detailed humorous aspects of tenement life in New York City for Joseph Pulitzer's <B>New York World.</B></I> Mickey Dugan, the Yellow Kid, was a slum kid with a bald head and big ears, and he was the star of <I>Hogan's Alley</B></I>. When the strip made its transition into a Sunday color panel, the Kid wore a bright yellow nightshirt which was emblazoned with his biting slang. As the Kid's popularity soared, a bidding war over Outcault's creation broke out between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. The Kid had become the first comics merchandising super-star. By 1896, Outcault had relocated to Hearst's <B>New York Journal</B></I>. Pulitzer countered by continuing <I>Hogan's Alley</B></I>, with <B>World</B></I> staff artist George Luks as the replacement artist. Meanwhile, Outcault drew his version of the Kid at the <B>Journal</B></I> under the title of <I>The Yellow Kid</B></I>. The Kid raised the ire of censors and was labeled "vulgar" by his critics. In 1898 Outcault walked away from <I>The Yellow Kid</B></I> feature, but he didn't abandon the Kid forever. In 1902, Outcault created his other famous <I>infant terrible</B></I>, <I>Buster Brown</B></I>, for the <B>New York Herald</B></I>. This rascal was a middle-class terror. The world Buster lived in was a far cry from the Yellow Kid's slums. Buster was a nattily attired boy who hid the mind of a devilish trickster under his angelic appearance. When Outcault jumped ship with <I>Buster Brown</B></I> from the <B>New York Herald</B></I> to William Randolph Heart's <B>Denver Post</B></I>, another lawsuit erupted. In 1906, once again the courts ruled that Outcault could continue to draw his character at another paper, but he couldn't use the <I>Buster Brown</B></I> name. As a result, Outcault resorted to using episodic titles such as "Strange Things Happen To," aside a portrait of Buster. Outcault's cartoons appealed to both adult and child readers. Comic strip historian Richard Marschall has pointed out, "Whether it was the pathos in <I>Hogan's Alley</B></I> or the high-society milieu in <I>Buster Brown</B></I>, whether the political comments were tucked away in labels in the <I>Yellow Kid</B></I> or in Tige's sarcastic remarks, there was material enough to attract older readers while the children laughed at the mayhem and pranks. In this way Richard Felton Outcault established more than the raw popularity of the newspaper cartoon and color comic section; he ensured its appeal would be universal." The image area of this hand-colored Sunday measures approximately 18" x 25". There are several stress cracks in the illustration board, and the upper left and right, and lower right corners have been restored with replacement pieces of paper; otherwise the overall condition of the art is Good. Yellow Kid art in <I>any</B></I> condition is ultra-scarce, so don't hesitate to bid on this historic masterpiece!