R. F. Outcault
| Richard Outcault | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born |
January 14, 1863 Lancaster, Ohio |
| Died |
September 25, 1928 (aged 65) Flushing, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
Richard Felton Outcault (/ˈaʊtkɔːlt/; January 14, 1863 – September 25, 1928) was an American cartoonist. He was the creator of the series The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown, and is considered a key pioneer of the modern comic strip.
Richard Felton Outcault was born on January 14, 1863, in Lancaster, Ohio, to Catherine Davis and Jesse P. Outcalt—spelled without the u their son later added. He attended McMicken University's school of design in Cincinnati from 1878 to 1881, and after graduating did commercial painting for the Hall Safe and Lock Company.
Outcault painted electric light displays for Edison Laboratories for the 1888 Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Middle Atlantic States in Cincinnati. This led to full-time work with Edison in West Orange, New Jersey, doing mechanical drawings and illustrations. Edison appointed him official artist for the company's traveling exhibition in 1889–90, which included supervising the installation of Edison exhibits at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. While there he studied art in the Latin Quarter and added the u to his surname.
In 1890 Outcault returned to the US, married, and moved to Flushing in New York City. He worked making technical drawings to Street Railway Journal and Electrical World, a magazine owned by one of Edison's friends. On the side he contributed to the humor magazines Truth, Puck, Judge and Life.
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