Figure 1.--These American postage stamps show some of the classic American comic strips. Some were about kids and others occasionally featured kids. They varied in how accurately and realistically that they depicted clothing.

Some famous characters have come out of the comics. Two American characters are Dennis the Menace and Buster Brown. One of the best known boy cartoon characters in Europe was the Belgian Tintin. Of course boys appeared in a wide variety of comic strips playing both long and short term roles. All of these strips offer a wide variety of often quite accurate details about boys clothing. As the comic strips were created about the turn of the 20th century, they provide more than a century of drawings oftering fashion details. Other cartoon characters are less famous, but the strips do provide some interesting fashion insights.

Countries

HBC has not begun to resaerach this topic yet, but the comic strip appeas to be an American creation. Political cartoons appeared in the 18th century in Europe, but the humerous or dramatic cartoon appears to be a creation of American newsapers in the late-19th century. The 'Yellow Kid' was the first, followed by 'Buster Brown'. One American reader reports that comic strips as opposed to TV, seemed very old-fashioned when he was a kid. Many of the American strips, everything from Mutt and Jeff to Gasoline Alley still had boys in knickers in the 1940s and 50s. Comic strips were a major source of entertaiment for American boys in the 1920s through the 40s and there were many adventure strips like 'Buck Rogers', 'Flash Gordon', and 'Terry and the Pirates'. Often kids appeared in these strips. American kids in the 1950s abandoned these strips in favor of television. It's the only place I ever saw boys wearing knockers as a small child. Even though they had only died out a few years before. Of course Tintin continued to wear knickers long after they passsed out of fashion. There were also British and French comics, but we do not know much about them. We have little information about other countries. But as far as we can tell, comics were popular throughout Wurope. We see boys in Greece, Sweden, and other countries enjoying comics. We suspect that boys in smaller countries read tanslated comics from the larger countries. Latin Ameican countries had the advantage that many spoke Spanish. We know nothing about Asia, but comics became very important in Japan. We know nothing about the situation before the Pacific War. Modern anime first appeared (1956). It became establihed with Mushi Productions by Osamu Tezuka (1961). He became a leading figure in modern manga -- the dense, novelistic Japanese comic book style that became to the central aesthetic of anime. We also know nothing about Chinese comics, but we notice street shops in which boys could pay a small fee to read a comic. That meant they did not need to purchase the comic. Unfortuntely, we do not yet know anything about the comics thatthey were reading.

Individual Strips

We have some limited information on individual comic strips that have boy characers or are about boys. Some have lasted only a few years and are associated with decades. Other have not only lasted the creators whole career, but even been continued after the creator passed on. In some strips the characters stay the same age. In others like "For Better and for Worse" the characters age. And in some like "Blondie" the characters age and then stay the same. "Most of the comics we are familiar with are American. Hopefully readers will tells us a bit about comic strips in their countries. American comic strips are carried in other counties, but foreign strips with the exception of Canadian are not normally carried in America. Individual comic strips will be listed here in aphabetical order.

Cartoonists

Here we will list especially important cartoonist and especially this who strips have children which show fashions and styltes over time. Some cartoonists move with the fashion trends. Others like Georges Remy retain the same fashions for their chracters, likr Tintin and his trademark knickers. Some famous characters have come out of the comics. Two American characters are 'Dennis the Menace' and 'Buster Brown'. One of the best known boy cartoon characters in Europe was the Belgian Tintin. Of course boys appeared in a wide variety of comic strips playing both long and short term roles. All of these strips offer a wide variety of often quite accurate details about boys clothing. As the comic strips were created about the turn of the 20th century, they provide more than a century of drawings oftering fashion details. Other cartoon characters are less famous, but the strips do provide some interesting fashion insights.

Gender

There are two interesting gender topics connected with comics. First is the gender of the charcters. Second is the gender of the children to which the comics appealed. By far the most common child characters are boys, both main characters and seciondary characters are boys. Main girl characters are (Little Orphan) Annie, Nancy, and Veronica. Little Orphan Annie was by farvthe most oopular girl comic strip. Main boy characters are: Alfred E. Newman, Archie, Buster Brown, Calvin, Casper, Charlie Brown, Dennis the Menace, Katzenjammer Kids, (Little) Nemo, Richie Rich, Terry (Terry grows up in 'Terry and the Piatres' strip), the Yellow Kid, and others. We also notice Suoer Biy and Super Gurl, but Super Boy was far more imortant. Notice that while Suoper Man was a blockbuster, there was no Super Woman. There were also important side kicks--all boys in Dick Tracy and Batman. Looking back on my childhood in America, it was the boys that were most interested in comics. Not to say that no girls read comics, but there was far more interest among boys. We also see mostly boys reading comics in the photographic record. We are not ebtirely sure why that was. Perhaps readers may have some idea.

Created: February 20, 2001
Last updated: 9:26 AM 4/11/2022