A few days ago I received a nice response from another author urging me to continue my long-standing quest to write a biography of R. F. Outcault, whom many consider the father of the comic strip. His Yellow Kid panel began appearing in Pulitzer's, The World, newspaper in 1895 and was the first portion of a newspaper to be printed in "color". Hence, the Yellow Kid was born.
I've been trying to do some preliminary research on dear old R.F., but details of his personal life are so scant. I've even talked via phone to experts in New York and Louisiana, but it's tough going. I'm not sure there would be any way to dredge up the kind of material necessary to make his life interesting . . . but then, that's the work of the biographer, isn't it?
I do have a few reprints of Yellow Kid cartoons, and even an original Buster Brown comic (also his creation) but I'm not sure I have the kind of scratch necessary to get my hands on other original R.F. Outcault artwork. If only he'd known I would be here, a hundred years later, wanting to write about him, surely he would have written me into his will.
Ah, R.F. . . . were are you when I need you?
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