FUNNY ANIMAL COMICS 235
village populated by clothed insect characters. Th e American humor magazines had
been inspired by earlier European humor magazines, which had published celebrated
cartoons of animals acting like humans by J. J. Grandville and, later, by Heinrich Kley.
In children’s books, Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit (originally self-published in 1901)
provides another example of illustrated stories about animals with some human char-
acteristics.
Funny animals appeared in newspaper comic strips just as that medium was becom-
ing established. Characters in pioneering newspaper cartoonist Jimmy Swinnerton’s
comic strip “Mr. Jack” (which appeared in 1903), had round cats’ heads on clothed,
upright human bodies with hands. Th e strip quickly attracted protests as being unsuit-
able for children (the jokes centered on Mr. Jack’s attempts to commit adultery) and it
was moved to the sports pages in 1904. Other early funny animal newspapers strips
included Sidney Smith’s “Old Doc Yak” and George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat.”
“Krazy Kat” fi rst appeared in a supporting role in 1910. “Krazy Kat” became the fi rst
comic strip to attract positive critical attention, most famously in 1924, when Gilbert
Seldes named it as the “most satisfactory work of art produced in America to-day” in
his book Th e 7 Lively Arts. Th e strip continues to win recognition as one of the great-
est comic strips ever drawn. “Krazy Kat” became one of the fi rst animated cats in 1916,
when its publisher, William Randolph Hearst, set up an animation studio to make
animated cartoons of his syndicated comic strip characters.
Since then, the usual path for funny animals has not been from print to screen, but
in the other direction. Th e most popular funny animal characters began in animated
cartoons and later became stars of newspaper strips, children’s books, and comic books,
where they appeared more frequently than in the fi lms where they had originated.
Funny animals perfectly matched the needs of the animation industry as it developed in
the early 20th century. Under pressure to produce a quick and steady stream of cartoons
on small budgets, each one requiring thousands of pictures, animators redesigned their
animal characters to use more rounded lines, which were faster and easier to draw and
fl owed better on the screen.
Felix the Cat fi rst appeared in 1917 in a three-minute animated cartoon created by
Otto Messmer, who was working for Pat Sullivan. Felix became a success, and begin-
ning in 1923 also appeared as a Sunday newspaper comic strip. Th e character Felix the
Cat visually resembles the main character in an earlier animated cartoon that Mess-
mer had assisted Sullivan on, entitled “Sammie Johnsin,” with the cat substituting for
the African American child “Sammie Johnsin.” Funny animal characters were built on,
overlapped with, and gradually replaced an older cartoon tradition of racial and ethnic
stereotyping. For example, the fi rst of Warner Brothers’ animated “Looney Tunes” char-
acters, Bosko, was copyrighted in 1928 as a “Negro boy,” but at fi rst closely resembled
other popular funny animal characters. Th e covers of the comic book Walter Lantz New
Funnies , featured Lantz’s animated characters Andy Panda, Oswald the Rabbit, Woody
Woodpecker, and Li’l Eight Ball—an African American child who had starred in three
animated cartoons. Some Mickey Mouse stories included the cute but savage African
