The
Katzenjammer Kids was a particular favorite of mine in the Sunday funnies when I was a kid. I was fascinated by the dialect spoken by the characters, and the strange nature of their relationship to one another (for example, I never figured out if the Captain was the father of Hans and Fritz, or who exactly the Inspector was). They also seemed to inhabit a world in some nether region between the past and the present, but mostly removed from any place familiar to me from experience, TV or other strips.
Later I found out that this was one of the oldest, continuously running strip (even more so today), created by Rudolph Dirks back around the turn of the twentieth century. Dirks was apparently lured away to a competing newspaper (it seems to me William Randolph Hearst was involved), but the characters belonged to his former employer. There was a big court battle, and the end result was two strips with the same characters, Dirks being forced to call his
The Captain and the Kids, while H.H. Knerr took over the original title. Both ran for many years, and I wonder how many readers who saw both realized they were by different artists (the selections here represent both).
Of course, both Knerr and Dirks were long gone by tht etime I began reading the strip, but little changed in the basic set-up. Hans and Fritz made life miserable for the Captain, the Captain's little pal the Inspector, and more indirectly their Mama. Unlike a lot of other strips though, sometimes the kids got away with it and sometimes they didn't, setting up endless cycles of revenge.
Looking back, I recognize an element of the strip that must have appealed to immigrants to the US. The broad physical, even violent, comedy had counterparts in vaudeville and on radio, and required little in the way of book learning to "get."
There's also something endlessly reassuring about the mischievous kids constantly poking away at the authority figures. It pretty much symbolizes the rebellious streak in the American character. Hence, Hans and Fritz daily demonstrated a strange bond between those seeking to become Americans and those who could trace their heritage back to the Revolution.
But really, the appeal was watching the little guys come out on top, as the Captain was something of a bully to the Kids. What's more American than cheering for the underdog, even if they're a couple of brats?
The Katzenjammer Kids was a particular favorite of mine in the Sunday funnies when I was a kid. I was fascinated by the dialect spoken by the characters, and the strange nature of their relationship to one another (for example, I never figured out if the Captain was the father of Hans and Fritz, or who exactly the Inspector was). They also seemed to inhabit a world in some nether region between the past and the present, but mostly removed from any place familiar to me from experience, TV or other strips.
Later I found out that this was one of the oldest, continuously running strip (even more so today), created by Rudolph Dirks back around the turn of the twentieth century. Dirks was apparently lured away to a competing newspaper (it seems to me William Randolph Hearst was involved), but the characters belonged to his former employer. There was a big court battle, and the end result was two strips with the same characters, Dirks being forced to call his The Captain and the Kids, while H.H. Knerr took over the original title. Both ran for many years, and I wonder how many readers who saw both realized they were by different artists (the selections here represent both).
Of course, both Knerr and Dirks were long gone by tht etime I began reading the strip, but little changed in the basic set-up. Hans and Fritz made life miserable for the Captain, the Captain's little pal the Inspector, and more indirectly their Mama. Unlike a lot of other strips though, sometimes the kids got away with it and sometimes they didn't, setting up endless cycles of revenge.
Looking back, I recognize an element of the strip that must have appealed to immigrants to the US. The broad physical, even violent, comedy had counterparts in vaudeville and on radio, and required little in the way of book learning to "get."
There's also something endlessly reassuring about the mischievous kids constantly poking away at the authority figures. It pretty much symbolizes the rebellious streak in the American character. Hence, Hans and Fritz daily demonstrated a strange bond between those seeking to become Americans and those who could trace their heritage back to the Revolution.
But really, the appeal was watching the little guys come out on top, as the Captain was something of a bully to the Kids. What's more American than cheering for the underdog, even if they're a couple of brats?
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