Was there ever a famous cartoon character most Americans knew of before Felix The Cat?
Big question concerning the history of cartoons
Ian Cook
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Kevin Moore
Betty Boop and affiliates?
Bosko the Inkwell kid?
Gertie the Dinosaur?
Since you brought up Felix, how about we talk about franchises that were huge for a long run then dropped off the face of the fucking planet instead.
Lil' Abner was fucking huge for like a 40 year run and you nobody knows about it today. Frank Frazetta cut his teeth working uncredited for Al Capp after Al got too rich to actually do the comic
Jaxon Carter
In case if I wasn't clear enough, I mean animation wise, as I am aware that there were famous comic characters known by most Americans way before ones that made it to the big screen. Plus I'm pretty sure that Betty Boop came out in 1929, and Bosko came out in 1930. Felix came out in 1919, which is a decade behind the two. Also, I highly doubt many Americans were talking about Gertie around his debute in 1914.
Owen Davis
Sorry about the date error. Betty Boop came out in 1930, while Bosko came out in 1929. Not the other way around.
Blake Sanders
Gertie was a huge Vaudeville act. Her popularity was what made studios take an interest in animation.
Josiah Fisher
You're probably right. It's just the fact that there is only two recorded cartoons of Gertie that makes me have doubts on her popularity with most Americans at the time. I did however, knew that Gertie inspired many famous animators to start making cartoons. What I'm wondering is if most Americans were into Gertie as well during her debut, since I am very certain that Felix The Cat was a household name around the early to mid 20's, but I haven't really seen that with Gertie.
Hunter Williams
Well, political cartoons were a thing ever since certain countries stopped killing people for drawing them.
Levi Wood
>Jeff. Sees the elephant.
That old-timey disregard for grammar and sentence composition.
William Bell
JeffREY. No grammatical mistakes there.
Sebastian Rivera
Gasoline Alley?
Jackson Young
that we know of? Only Koko The Clown comes close but I'm sure Felix dwarfed him
if we're counting newspaper comic characters who had cartoons I suppose that Little Nemo would have him beat
Wyatt Allen
The Yellow kid. He came out around 1895.
James Peterson
This also brings up a question I wonder about sometimes. When did we start to become particularly obsessed with preserving our old culture? A huge amount of stuff has been lost due to people simply not thinking any one would want it later. For instance, Your Show of Shows is entirely lost and was never recorded to begin with because they figured reruns would be a silly idea.
Now that technology has made it very easy to catalog things we seem very obsessed with it as a culture. People get very sad about the idea that things are lost. When did this feeling of nostalgia and sadness for lost media start? Or is it just an evolution of nostalgia as an emotion that has been around for all of human history.
David Cruz
Nolan Evans
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Easton Williams
This is a good question
I'd guess media provides a form of continuity for our lives
Nathan Russell
Aaron Bell
Yes—before Felix, the big ones were Krazy Kat, Bobby Bumps, and Colonel Heeza Liar (first seen in 1914; pic related is from 1924).
Matthew Perry
>Yup, it's a heffalump.
Asher Gomez
Regarding the first one, the idea to preserve ancient things and the sadness from the loss of it can be traced down to all human history, but the first time that it became, let's say mainstream I think it's during the italian renaissance, when a great interest resurged into discovering and preserving what was left ot the ancient, roman times.
Media, on the othe hand, usually gets lost because, while for the fans (and maybe even for the historians) it has an intrinsic value, for its original owner it's jus... well, business. Why should a company occupay and then pay for a big storage of old recordings most people thinks are outdated when you could use the money to produce something new that will give you profit?
Regarding the general nostalgic question about our times, I think the sudden passion with older things, especially from young people, could come from the fact that we're living in a pretty pessimistic time where, justified or not, it seems difficult to have faith in a better future, so we try to take refuge in the past, even one we never actually knew.
Corporations, noticing it, started a never seen before flow of reboots and remastered editions that only strenght the sensation that the past is becoming more and more prominent, and that makes people look for even older/more obscure things to find.
considering this is Sup Forums, agood key to think the situations could be that quote from watchmen where they say that, with every year, the future looks a bit bleacker while the past, even its worst aspects, becomes brighter.
pretty smar question anyway user, keep thinking about it!
Hudson Kelly
Nice to see mice being little shits even back then.
Jayden Gonzalez
Little Nemo
Krazy Kat
Ayden Rivera
What about those american comics about two boys one rude and another polite, i remember someone here made some edits
Nolan Nelson
No. He was literally the first recurring character in animation.
Brayden Roberts
Everett True got his film short; not sure if that counts as real popularity.
Justin Lewis
"Your Show of Shows" isn't entirely lost and was recorded.
paleycenter.org
Connor Walker
What the actual fucking shit?
Connor Butler
The more you know, Scoob.
Jonathan Perry
I think I have just found the inspiration to Felix The Cat.
Jaxon Williams
You never heard of Yellow Kid?
James Gray
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Nathan Young
>Joe Kerr
Grayson Lee
Lil Abner also used to have his own theme park
Adrian Ramirez
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