| The Katzenjammer Kids | |
|---|---|
.jpg) First appearance of Rudolph Dirks' The Katzenjammer Kids (1897) | |
| Author(s) | Rudolph Dirks (creator, 1897–1913) Harold Knerr (1914–1949) Doc Winner (1949–1956) Joe Musial (1956–1977) Mike Senich (1977–1981) Angelo DeCesare (1981–1986) Hy Eisman (1986–2006) |
| Current status/schedule | Concluded; in reprints |
| Launch date | December 12, 1897 |
| End date | 2006 |
| Alternate name(s) | The Shenanigan Kids |
| Syndicate(s) | King Features Syndicate |
| Genre(s) | Humor |
The Katzenjammer Kids is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).[1] It debuted on December 12, 1897, in the American Humorist, the Sunday supplement of William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. The comic strip was turned into a stage play in 1903. It inspired several animated cartoons and was one of 20 strips included in the Comic Strip Classics series of U.S. commemorative postage stamps.
After a series of legal battles between 1912 and 1914, Dirks left the Hearst organization and began a new strip, first titled Hans and Fritz and then The Captain and the Kids. It featured the same characters seen in The Katzenjammer Kids, which was continued by Knerr. The two separate versions of the strip competed with each other until 1979, when The Captain and the Kids ended its six-decade run. The Katzenjammer Kids published its last original strip in 2006, but is still distributed in reprints by King Features Syndicate, making it the oldest comic strip still in syndication and the longest-running ever.[2]
- ^ Dirks profile: "Born in Heide, Germany, Rudolph Dirks moved with his parents to Chicago at the age of seven".
- ^ Claire Suddath (May 17, 2010). "Top 10 Long-Running Comic Strips / The Katzenjammer Kids". Time magazine. Archived from the original on May 20, 2010. Retrieved May 17, 2010.