Rudolph Dirks

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Rudolph Dirks
Schleswig-Holstein Province, German Empire
DiedApril 20, 1968(1968-04-20) (aged 91)
New York City, U.S.
NationalityGerman-American
Area(s)Cartoonist
Notable works
The Katzenjammer Kids

Rudolph Dirks (February 26, 1877 – April 20, 1968) was one of the earliest and most noted

The Captain and the Kids
).

Dirks was born in

New York Journal
.

The circulation war between the Journal and

Yellow Kid, starting in 1895. Editor Rudolph Block asked Dirks to develop a Sunday comic based on Wilhelm Busch's cautionary tale, Max and Moritz. When Dirks submitted his sketches, Block dubbed them The Katzenjammer Kids
, and the first strip appeared on December 12, 1897. Gus Dirks assisted his brother with The Katzenjammer Kids during the first few years until his suicide on June 10, 1902.

Comics competition

Dirks circa 1900

Dirks took time off from his Journal work to serve his country in the

H. H. Knerr to continue The Katzenjammer Kids, and he and his successors have carried it on to the present day. The Captain and the Kids was distributed by United Feature Syndicate while King Features Syndicate
handled The Katzenjammer Kids.

Rudolph Dirks' The Captain and the Kids (January 21, 1945)

The success of The Katzenjammer Kids was due to more than just lucky circumstances. Dirks was a gifted cartoonist with superb timing and a colorful gallery of different characters, including Hans and Fritz, Der Captain, Der Inspector and Mama. In the mid-1950s, a romantic swindler named Fineas Flub was introduced to the strip. Characters such as Rollo never appeared in Dirks' version of the strip.

Strip icons

Dirks made substantial contributions to the graphic language of comic strips. Although not the first to use sequential panels or speech balloons, he was influential in their wider adoption. He also popularized such icons as speed lines, "seeing stars" for pain, and "sawing wood" for snoring.

As a pastime, Dirks produced serious paintings associated with the Ashcan School. Like many of his cartoonist colleagues, he was an avid golfer. Dirks incrementally passed his cartooning duties on to his son John Dirks, who took over The Captain and the Kids around 1955. The elder Dirks died in New York City in 1968.[3]

References

  1. ^ Lambiek: "Born in Heide, Germany, Rudolph Dirks moved with his parents to Chicago at the age of seven."
  2. ISBN 978-3-942074-05-6
    .
  3. ISBN 978-90-450-0996-4
    .

Further reading
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