Richard F. Outcault

Richard Felton Outcault ( born January 14, 1863 in Lancaster, Ohio; † September 25, 1928 in Flushing, New York) was an American comic book artist, writer and painter. He is the creator of the cartoon characters The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown.

Outcault was the son of Jesse and Catherine Outcault. From 1878 to 1881 he attended the McMicken University 's School of Design in Cincinnati. In 1889, he was a draftsman for Thomas Edison. In whose behalf he went in 1889 to the Paris World's Fair, where he took the opportunity to complete his artistic training. 1890, after his return to the U.S., he began ridiculous articles for magazines such as Truth and Judge to draw.

In 1894 his most famous character in "The Yellow Kid" for the first time in the magazine Truth. In the same year he moved to a permanent position to Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. There his series was published under the title Hogan 's Alley with the Yellow Kid on, initially in small format and black and white, without attracting attention. This only changed when the series was published full-page and in color - with the bright yellow nightshirt of the protagonist especially stood out. The success of the series led to a rapid increase in the edition of the New York World, which William Randolph Hearst did not escape the hiring away immediately Outcault for a higher fee to his New York Journal. A legal dispute between the two sheets meant that Pulitzer retained the title rights to Hogan 's Alley, and the comic at Hearst under the title The Yellow Kid appeared. In English, the term is derived for yellow journalism, yellow press, of Outcaults Yellow Kid ago.