Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: When was the first Peanuts comic strip printed?
From 1947 to 1949, the newspaper printed the comic strip "Li'l Folks", by Twin Cities native Charles M. Schulz. This comic introduced a number of characters who would later return in 1950 in the syndicated comic strip "Peanuts", including Charlie Brown and a dog strongly resembling Snoopy.
Initially, the Puppet characters on "Sesame Street" did not actually appear on Sesame Street itself, but were relegated to the intermediary segments. Muppets creator Jim Henson wanted them to be integrated into the series, suggesting a giant bird and creature living in the neighborhood's trash can. The character was developed by "Sesame Street" head writer Jon Stone and Henson, based on the personality of a “magnificently rude” waiter. Puppeteer Caroll Spinney found inspiration for the voice in the driver of a New York City taxi he took to the studio.
The first Batman story, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate", was published in "Detective Comics" #27 (May 1939). Finger said, "Batman was originally written in the style of the pulps", and this influence was evident with Batman showing little remorse over killing or maiming criminals. Batman proved a hit character, and he received his own solo title in 1940 while continuing to star in "Detective Comics". By that time, Detective Comics was the top-selling and most influential publisher in the industry; Batman and the company's other major hero, Superman, were the cornerstones of the company's success. The two characters were featured side-by-side as the stars of "World's Finest Comics", which was originally titled "World's Best Comics" when it debuted in fall 1940. Creators including Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang also worked on the strips during this period.
The first cartoon from the "What a Cartoon!" project broadcast in its entirety was "The Powerpuff Girls in "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins"", which made its world premiere on Monday, February 20, 1995, during a television special called the "World Premiere Toon-In" (termed "President's Day Nightmare" by its producers, Williams Street). The special was hosted by Space Ghost and the cast of "Space Ghost Coast to Coast", and featured comic interviews and a mock contest with the creators of the various cartoons. The Toon-In was simulcast on Cartoon Network, TBS Superstation, and TNT. To promote the shorts, Cartoon Network's marketing department came up with the concept of "Dive-In Theater" in 1995 to showcase the 48 cartoon shorts. The cartoons were shown at water parks and large municipal swimming pools, treating kids and their parents to exclusive poolside screenings on 9' x 12' movie screens.
Donald's Nephews (1938) is a Donald Duck animated cartoon which features Donald being visited by his three nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. This cartoon is Huey, Dewey, and Louie's very first appearance in animation. The short, and the three nephews, was the idea of Al Taliaferro, the artist for the "Silly Symphonies" comic strip, which featured Donald Duck. The Walt Disney Productions Story Dept. on February 5, 1937, sent Taliaferro a memo recognizing him as the source of the idea for the planned short. Taliaferro subsequently introduced the nephews in his comic strip, which by this time had been renamed "Donald Duck", on Sunday, October 17, 1937, beating the theatrical release of "Donald's Nephews" by almost six months.
Donald Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is most famous for his semi-intelligible speech and his mischievous and temperamental personality. Along with his friend Mickey Mouse, Donald is one of the most popular Disney characters and was included in "TV Guide"s list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time in 2002. He has appeared in more films than any other Disney character, and is the most published comic book character in the world outside of the superhero genre.
Entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications in autumn 1934. The company debuted with the tabloid-sized "" #1 with a cover date of February 1935. The company's second title, "New Comics" #1 (Dec. 1935), appeared in a size close to what would become comic books' standard during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books, with slightly larger dimensions than today's. That title evolved into "Adventure Comics", which continued through issue #503 in 1983, becoming one of the longest-running comic-book series. In 2009 DC revived "Adventure Comics" with its original numbering. In 1935, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the future creators of Superman, created Doctor Occult, who is the earliest DC Comics character to still be in the DC Universe.
"When the Cat's Away" (April 18, 1929), essentially a remake of the "Alice Comedy", "Alice Rattled by Rats", was an unusual appearance for Mickey. Although Mickey and Minnie still maintained their anthropomorphic characteristics, they were depicted as the size of regular mice and living with a community many other mice as pests in a home. Mickey and Minnie would later appear the size of regular humans in their own setting. In appearances with real humans, Mickey has been shown to be about two to three feet high. The next Mickey short was also unusual. "The Barnyard Battle" (April 25, 1929) was the only film to depict Mickey as a soldier and also the first to place him in combat. "The Karnival Kid" (1929) was the first time Mickey spoke. Before this he had only whistled, laughed, and grunted. His first words were "Hot dogs! Hot dogs!" said while trying to sell hot dogs at a carnival. "Mickey's Follies" (1929) introduced the song "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo" which would become the theme song for "Mickey Mouse" films for the next several years. The "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo" song sequence was also later reused with different background animation as its own special short shown only at the commencement of 1930s theater-based Mickey Mouse Clubs. Mickey's dog Pluto first appeared as Mickey's pet in "The Moose Hunt" (1931) after previously appearing as Minnie's dog "Rover" in "The Picnic" (1930).
In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California, drawing up a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse (Disney's wife, Lillian, disliked the sound of 'Mortimer Mouse') and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film "Steamboat Willie", a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928 through Pat Powers' distribution company. It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho". "Steamboat Willie" was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee de Forest's Phonofilm system. "Steamboat Willie" premiered at B. S. Moss's Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disney's "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho" were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks and re-released successfully in 1929.
Audiences at the time of "Steamboat Willie"'s release were reportedly impressed by the use of sound for comedic purposes. Sound films or "talkies" were still considered innovative. The first feature-length movie with dialogue sequences, "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson, was released on October 6, 1927. Within a year of its success, most United States movie theaters had installed sound film equipment. Walt Disney apparently intended to take advantage of this new trend and, arguably, managed to succeed. Most other cartoon studios were still producing silent products and so were unable to effectively act as competition to Disney. As a result, Mickey would soon become the most prominent animated character of the time. Walt Disney soon worked on adding sound to both "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho" (which had originally been silent releases) and their new release added to Mickey's success and popularity. A fourth Mickey short, "The Barn Dance", was also put into production; however, Mickey does not actually speak until "The Karnival Kid" in 1929 when his first spoken words were "Hot dogs, Hot dogs!" After "Steamboat Willie" was released, Mickey became a close competitor to Felix the Cat, and his popularity would grow as he was continuously featured in sound cartoons. By 1929, Felix would lose popularity among theater audiences, and Pat Sullivan decided to produce all future Felix cartoons in sound as a result. Unfortunately, audiences did not respond well to Felix's transition to sound and by 1930, Felix had faded from the screen.
A comic strip also regularly appeared in the pages of "Doctor Who Magazine". This began as a Marvel Comics publication under the name "Doctor Who Weekly" in 1979 (soon changing to "Doctor Who Monthly"), and the magazine continued to be published after the programme ceased production in 1989. The comic strip has usually featured the current Doctor in a series of adventures independent of the novels and the audios, and with another companion, though several crossovers with the worlds of the audio and literary "Doctor Who" and the comics have occurred. Creators who have worked on the "Doctor Who Magazine" strip include such notables as writer Alan Moore and artists Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon, and John Ridgway. Selected stories were reprinted in North America by Marvel Comics, which was also the publisher of "Doctor Who Magazine" at the time. "Marvel Premiere" #57 (December 1980) was the first Doctor Who comic published in North America. When "Doctor Who Magazine" was published by Marvel, some characters occasionally crossed over between the "Doctor Who" comic and other titles published by Marvel UK; these include the froglike Venusian businessman Josiah Dogbolter and the robotic bounty hunter Death's Head. In the "Flood Barriers" feature in the trade paperback "Doctor Who: The Flood", it is revealed the comic strip was given the opportunity to show the regeneration of the Eighth Doctor into the Ninth Doctor.
In 1936, Donald was redesigned to be a bit fuller, rounder, and cuter, the first to feature this design was the cartoon "Moving Day". He also began starring in solo cartoons, the first of which was January 9, 1937, Ben Sharpsteen cartoon, "Don Donald". This short also introduced a love interest of Donald's, "Donna Duck", who evolved into Daisy Duck. Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, would make their first animated appearance a year later in the April 15, 1938, film, "Donald's Nephews", directed by Jack King (they had been earlier introduced in the Donald Duck comic strip by Al Taliaferro, see below). By 1938, most polls showed that Donald was more popular than Mickey Mouse. Disney could, however, help Mickey regain popularity by redesigning him, giving him his most appealing design as production for the "Fantasia" segment "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" began in 1938.
"The Walking Dead" debuted in 2003, published by Image Comics, with art by Tony Moore for the first six issues and Cliff Rathburn shading the art after issue five. Charlie Adlard took over as artist on issue #7, after he was approached by Kirkman. Moore also did the cover art for the first twenty-four issues and the first four trade paperbacks. The remainder were done by Adlard.
In the United States, pulp magazines such as Harry Donenfeld's "Spicy Detective" featured comics on heroines who lose their clothing, such as Adolphe Barreaux's "Sally the Sleuth" which debuted in 1934. Many of the early comic publishers got their start in the pulps with Donenfeld for instance going on to found DC Comics. Fiction House similarly started as a pulp magazine publisher, but in 1938, released "Jumbo Comics" featuring Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, the first of many scantily clad jungle girls. Fiction House comics routinely featured attractive women on the covers, a trend which later became referred to as 'good girl art.' In 1941, Quality Comics put out "Police Comics" featuring Phantom Lady, a scantily clad crime fighter. Fox Feature Syndicate eventually began publishing Phantom Lady where she was drawn by Matt Baker, one of the most famous 'good girl' artists. Milton Caniff started producing the comic strip "Male Call" in 1943, and Bill Ward came out with "Torchy" in 1944 featuring sexy heroines.
Mickey Mouse (originally Mickey Mouse Sound Cartoons) is a character-based series of 130 animated short films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The films, which introduced Disney's most famous cartoon character, were released on a regular basis from 1928 ("Plane Crazy") to 1953 with four additional shorts released between 1983 and 2013. The series is notable for its innovation with sound synchronization and character animation, and also introduced well-known characters such as Minnie Mouse, Pluto, and Goofy.
"KoDT" first started in the second issue of "Shadis" magazine in March 1990 when then editor Jolly R. Blackburn decided to draw a simple strip of his own to put on the last page which he called "Knights of the Dinner Table". The first comic only contained B.A. and Bob. Over the next three issues Blackburn continued to draw his own comics (adding in Dave and Brian), but by the sixth issue he had acquired other comics and replaced "KoDT" with them. Readers, however, demanded the return of the "Knights" strip. It was brought back in the eighth issue and lasted into the 21st.
Elvira "Grandma" Duck (née Coot; born October c. 1855) is Donald's grandmother and the Duck family matriarch. In most stories, she is simply referred to as "Grandma Duck". She was introduced to the Disney comic universe by Al Taliaferro and Bob Karp in the "Donald Duck" newspaper comic strip, first in a picture on the wall in the August 11, 1940, Sunday page, and then as fully fledged character in the strip of Monday, September 27, 1943. Taliaferro found inspiration for her in his own mother-in-law, Donnie M. Wheaton. Depending on the writer, Grandma Duck has had various given names over the years; in a story by Riley Thomson from 1950 she was named "Elviry" and in a story from 1953 she was given the name "Abigail". Don Rosa later gave her the name "Elvira" in his comic books series "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck".
This was the first original Mickey Mouse theatrical cartoon produced in over 30 years. With the exception of re-releases, Mickey had not appeared in movie theaters since the short film "The Simple Things" (1953). Many additional characters seen in the film had also not appeared in a theatrical cartoon for several decades. The film was also the last time in which Clarence Nash voiced Donald Duck. Nash was the only original voice actor in the film as Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse) and Pinto Colvig (Goofy) had died in the 1960s, Cliff Edwards (Jiminy Cricket) and Billy Gilbert (Willie the Giant) in 1971, and Billy Bletcher (Pete and the Big Bad Wolf) in 1979. It was also the first time in animation that Scrooge McDuck (as Ebenezer Scrooge) was voiced by actor Alan Young (who had first voiced the character on the musical album); Young would continue to be the primary voice actor for McDuck until the actor's death in 2016.
In March 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc., making DC Comics a subsidiary of Time Warner. In June, the first Tim Burton directed Batman movie was released, and DC began publishing its hardcover series of DC Archive Editions, collections of many of their early, key comics series, featuring rare and expensive stories unseen by many modern fans. Restoration for many of the Archive Editions was handled by Rick Keene with colour restoration by DC's long-time resident colourist, Bob LeRose. These collections attempted to retroactively credit many of the writers and artists who had worked without much recognition for DC during the early period of comics when individual credits were few and far between.
Created as a replacement for a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey first appeared in the short "Plane Crazy", debuting publicly in the short film "Steamboat Willie" (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. He went on to appear in over 130 films, including "The Band Concert" (1935), "Brave Little Tailor" (1938), and "Fantasia" (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also occasionally in feature-length films. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, "Lend a Paw", won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Some of the early cartoon series on The Disney Afternoon came from already in-circulation cartoons, such as "Adventures of the Gummi Bears", which aired on NBC from 1985 to 1988 and then moved to ABC in 1989. "DuckTales" premiered in 1987 as Disney was focused on incorporating animated series into its portfolio in the era of cartoons; it was Disney's only syndicated cartoon series until accompanied in 1989 by "." These two shows had been packaged together as an hour-long cartoon block from 1989 to 1990, until both shows were incorporated into The Disney Afternoon in September 1990.
Peanuts Motion Comics is a series of animated cartoon shorts based on 1964 strips of Charles Schulz' comic strip, "Peanuts". The series premiered on iTunes in 2008 with the support of the Schulz estate. The first season consists of 20 cartoon shorts, paired into 10 episodes. The episodes employ signature themes and plotlines from the classic strips. The first season was released to DVD on March 9, 2010. Animation production was done by Studio B Productions.
Charles Schulz had always resisted republication of the earliest "Peanuts" strips, as they did not reflect the characters as he eventually developed them. However, in 1997 he began talks with Fantagraphics Books to have the entire run of the strip, which would end up with 17,897 strips total, published chronologically in book form. In addition to the post-millennium Peanuts publications are BOOM! Studios restyling of the comics and activity books, and "First Appearances" series. Its content is produced by Peanuts Studio, subsequently an arm of Peanuts Worldwide LLC.
When cartoonist Morrie Turner began questioning why there were no minorities in the comic strips, his mentor, "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, suggested he create one. Morris' first attempt, "Dinky Fellas", featured an all-black cast, but found publication in only one newspaper, the "Chicago Defender". Turner integrated the strip, renaming it "Wee Pals", and on February 15, 1965, it became the first American syndicated comic strip to have a cast of diverse ethnicity.
In 1948, Schulz tried to have "Li'l Folks" syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a firm run by the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. "Li'l Folks" was dropped in early 1950. Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate—also operated by Scripps-Howard—with his best work from "Li'l Folks". When his work was picked up by United Feature Syndicate, they decided to run the new comic strip he had been working on. This strip was similar in spirit to the panel comic, but had a set cast of characters rather than different nameless little folk for each page. The name "Li'l Folks" was very close to the names of two other comics of the time: Al Capp's "Li'l Abner" and a strip titled "Little Folks", so to avoid confusion, the syndicate settled on the name "Peanuts", after the peanut gallery featured in the "Howdy Doody" TV show.