American humor and cartoon weekly magazines founded after the late 1870s (“Puck,” “Judge,” and “Life”) first introduced single panel cartoons (and later a “strip” of panels) to American audiences. Striking storytelling artwork was the result. (See the “American Memories” page on this site for examples of these works.)

As the Twentieth Century approached, the United States was a growing nation with a huge new immigrant population focused particularly in the large cities. Newspaper publishers waged battles for increased readership. The comic cartoon became a major weapon in these economic skirmishes. Cartoonists like R.F. Outcault (“The Yellow Kid” and “Buster Brown”), Winsor McCay (“Little Nemo”), and Frederick Opper (“Happy Hooligan”) drew large multi-paneled cartoons – often a full newspaper page in size – printed in full color. Readers often chose their newspaper based on which cartoons a newspaper featured. Comic cartoonists became frontline soldiers in the newspaper circulation wars, but this afforded them a continuing showcase plus enormous freedom to experiment.