The Yellow Kid facts for kids
The Yellow Kid is the name of a comic strip character. He appeared from 1895 to 1898 in the New York World, and later in the New York Journal. The Yellow Kid was created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in the comic strip Hogan's Alley. It was one of the first Sunday supplement comic strips in an American newspaper. Its graphical layout had already been established in political and other, purely-for-entertainment cartoons.
The Yellow Kid was a bald, snaggle-toothed boy who wore an over-sized yellow nightshirt and hung around in a slum alley. This alley was typical of certain areas of squalor that existed in turn of the 19th to 20th century New York City. Hogan's Alley was filled with equally odd characters, mostly other children. With a goofy grin, the Kid spoke in a ragged, peculiar slang. This slang was printed on his shirt, a device meant to mock advertising billboards.
Images for kids
-
A May 1895 New York World appearance of the character (lower right, above Outcault's signature) who, here, is not yet wearing yellow.
-
1902 poster for Gus Hill's stage production of McFadden's Flats
-
Richard F Outcault's last Hogan's Alley cartoon for Truth magazine, Fourth Ward Brownies, was published on 9 February 1895 and reprinted in the New York World newspaper on 17 February 1895, beginning one of the first comic strips in an American newspaper. The character later known as the Yellow Kid had minor supporting roles in the strip's early panels. This one refers to The Brownies characters popularized in books and magazines by artist Palmer Cox.
-
A year and a half later Outcault was drawing the Yellow Kid for Hearst's New York Journal in a full-page color Sunday supplement as McFadden's Row of Flats. In this 15 November 1896 Sunday panel, word balloons have appeared, the action is openly violent and the drawing has become mixed and chaotic.
See also
In Spanish: El Chico Amarillo para niños
