The Yellow Kid

The Yellow Kid

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.

The Yellow Kid Media

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  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.

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  1902 poster for Gus Hill's stage production of McFadden's Flats

Other websites

• Radio piece detailing the story behind the Yellow Kid, particularly his role in commercial advertising
• Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: (88 Yellow Kid pages) Archived 2012-06-21 at the Wayback Machine
• New York Times Book Review: "The Kid From Hogan's Alley" by John Canemaker
• R. F. Outcault Society's Yellow Kid site
• Yellow Kid origin Archived 2009-06-17 at the Wayback Machine
• Yellow Kid Pinbacks