May 27: Frank Crane's Willie Westinghouse Edison Smith, the Boy Inventor makes its debut. [2]
September 16: Gus Dirks' Latest News from Bugville makes its debut. It will run until 9 March 1902. [3]
December: Richard F. Outcault's Poor Li'l Mose is the first comic strip to star a black character. The series will run until August 1902. [4][5]
December 30: John Campbell Cory launches Lariat Pete. The comic series will run until 1902. [6]
Johannes Franciscus Nuijens (Korporaal Achilles), a Dutch Catholic teacher, publishes the political comic book Aanleiding tot den Engelsch-Transvaalschen Oorlog (Reason for the English-Transvaal War). [7]
Arpad Schmidhammer draws the text comicTotentanz der Politik, a satire on war politics, with the Grim Reaper as its star. [8]
Kitazawa Rakuten creates Tagosaku to Mokubē no Tōkyō-Kenbutsu (田吾作と杢兵衛の東京見物,, "Tagosaku and Mokube's Sightseeing in Tokyo") and Haikara Kidorō no Sippai (灰殻木戸郎の失敗,, "The Failures of Kidoro Haikara" for the magazine Jiji Manga.
February 1: Ed Carey's Professor Hypnotiser makes its debut and will run until 23 July 1905.[16]
March
March 22: Grace Drayton's comic strip character Toodles (later known as Dolly Dimples) makes her debut. She will appear in various incarnations until 1933.[28]
April
April 5: Joseph A. Lemon's Willy Cute makes its debut. It will run until 1906.[29]
May
May 3: Red Shellcope's Jimmie the Messenger Boy makes its debut.[30]
October
October 4: Gustave Verbeek's The Upside Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo makes its debut. It will run until 15 January 1905.[31]
November
November 1: Jimmy Swinnerton's Mr. Jack receives its own Sunday page, after making his debut as a character in 1898.[32]
December
December 6: J.B. Lowitz' Swifty and his Wonderful Dream makes its debut. [33]
C. M. Payne's Coon Hollow Folks debuts and will run until 1908. [37]
Specific date unknown
Karóly Mühlbeck starts his long-running series Mühlbeck headlines. in the weekly Új Idők. [38]
1904
January
January 2: George Herriman's Major Ozone's Fresh Air Crusade makes its debut, syndicated by World Color Printing Co.[39]
January 3: The first issue of the Spanish illustrated children's magazine En Patufet is published. It will run until December 1938. Between 6 December 1968 and 29 June 1973 it will be revived.
January 11: George Frink's Circus Solly makes its debut. It will run until 4 December 1911.[40]
January 30: Albéric Bourgeois's Les Aventures de Timothée makes its debut. The first serialized Canadian comic strip in the French language.[41]
April 16: Julius Stafford Baker creates the comic strip Mrs. Hippo's Kindergarten for The Daily Mirror, which features Tiger Tim who will become a popular spin-off comic in The Monthly Playbox from November 1904 on. [26]
April 20: George McManus's The Newlyweds makes its debut. It will run under various titles until 1956. [44][45]
April 22: Gus Mager starts his ... the Monk comics series, which will run until 1913. [46]
April 23: René-Charles Béliveau's La Famille Citrouillard makes its debut in La Patrie. The comic will continue until February 1905, after which he leaves it to T. Bisson.[47]
February 2: The first issue of the French girls' comics magazine La Semaine de Suzette is published. It will run until 25 August 1960. In its first issue Joseph Pinchon's text comic Bécassine makes its debut.[55][56]
July 23: The final episode of Ed Carey's Professor Hypnotiser is published.[16]
August
August 13: The first episode of Gene Carr's The Bad Dream That Made Bill A Better Boy is published. But he passes it on to William Steinigans, who will continue the series until 1911. [58]
October
October 11: The first issue of the Brazilian comics magazine O Tico-Tico is published. It will run until 1977.
January 14: After Richard F. Outcault has been bought away to another newspaper his comics series Buster Brown is continued in the old publication by Worden Wood.[5][60]
April 19: The first episode of Lyonel Feininger's Wee Willie Winkie's World is published. It will run until 17 February 1907.[61]
August 12: The first episode of William Steinigans's Pups is published. It will run until 1911.[58]
August 23: Grif's It's Only Ethelinda makes its debut.[73]
August 30: The final episode of Frank Crane's Val the Ventriloquist is published.[2]
December 27: The first issue of the Italian comics magazine Corriere dei Piccoli is published. In its first issue Attilio Mussino's Bilbolbul makes its debut. The series will run until 1933. The magazine itself will run until 15 August 1995.
In France, the comic strip Sam et Sap by Émile Tap, is the first known French comic to use speech balloons. [76]
1909
January 10: The final episode of Ed Carey's Simple Simon is published.[16]
February: Walt Kuhn's comic Whisk makes its debut and will run until October 1910.[77]
October 21: André Vallet and Jo Valle's L'Espiègle Lili makes its debut. It will run until 1998.[78]
November 1: John Hager's The Umbrella Man makes its debut in the Seattle Daily Times, appearing on the front page as a supplement for the weather.[79] Not titled as the Umbrella Man, but called that May 3, 1913, under a section called "Features of Today's Paper".
November 27: C. M. Payne's Mr. Hush (later retitled Honeybunch's Hubby) debuts. It will continue until 1911 but be briefly revived between 1931 and 1934.[37]
December 23: The first episode of George Herriman's Gooseberry Sprig is published. Although it barely lasts a few weeks, it does introduce the characters Gooseberry Sprig, Joe Stork and the setting Coconino County, which will later reappear in his more famous comic Krazy Kat. [80]
December: Rose O'Neill's Kewpies comic strip is first published in Ladies' Home Journal. The characters will become very popular as toy articles in the following decades.[81]
Daan Hoeksema publishes De Neef van Prikkebeen, a follow-up to Rodolphe Töpffer's De Neef van Prikkebeen.[82]
May 27: Fritz von Dardel, Swiss comics artist (Ett Frieri, Herrar Black & Smith på väg till Skandinavien, Familjen Tutings Lustresa till Bomarsund), dies at age 84.[90]
June 15: José Luis Pellicer, Spanish painter, illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 59.[91]
1902
June 10: Gus Dirks, American comics artist (Latest News From Bugville, assistant on The Katzenjammer Kids), commits suicide at age 23.[15]
August 7: Eugène Cottin, French painter, illustrator, engraver and comics artist, passes away at age 60.[92]
December 7: Thomas Nast, American cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 62 of yellow fever.[93]
1904
March 8: Celso Hermínio, Portuguese caricaturist, illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 33 from pneumonia.[94]
December 1: A.L. Jansson, American comics artist (made text comics based on characters from playing cards), dies at age 48.[95]
February 16: Dan McCarthy, American comics artist (Noah's Ark, The Streets of New York, continued Gay Gazoozaland and Lariat Pete), dies at age 44. [97]
September 28: Thomas Frank Beard, American illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 63.[98]
1906
April 19: Jan Linse, Dutch painter, caricaturist and comics artist (made comics for the satirical magazines Humoristisch Album and Abraham's Prikkie's Op- en Aanmerkingen), dies at age 62.[99]
June 26: Victor Géruzez, A.K.A. Crafty, French illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 66.[100]
July 3: Gédéon Baril, French comic artist (drew prototypical comics), dies at age 73. [101]
November 28: Oskar Andersson, aka O.A., Swedish comics artist (Mannen Som Gör Vad Som Faller Honom In (The Man Who Does Whatever Comes To His Mind), Urhunden), commits suicide at the age of 29.[24]
January 9: Wilhelm Busch, German illustrator, poet, painter, graphic artist and comics artist (Max und Moritz), dies at age 75.[103]
January 19: Georgi Danchov, Bulgarian illustrator, caricaturist, painter and comics artist (The Six Feelings), passes away at age 61.[104]
September 4: Théophile Hyacinthe Busnel, French illustrator and comics artist (Farces du Petit Cousin Charlot, continued Les Aventures de Timothée), dies from TBC at age 25 or 26.[105]
September 17: Henri Julien, Canadian painter, caricaturist, illustrator and comics artist, passes away at age 56.[106]
September 22: F. M. Howarth, American comics artist (The Love of Lulu and Leander, Mr. E.Z. Mark, Ole Opey Dildock), dies at age 43 of pneumonia.[25]
Specific date unknown: Eduardo Sojo, Argentinian comic artist (Don Quijote), dies at age 58 or 59. [107]
1909
February 25: Caran d'Ache, French caricaturist, cartoonist and comics artist, dies at age 50.[108]
