The R. F. Outcault Reader - vol. 7 no. 3

The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats

Richard D. Olson

     

On 3 March 1897, an ad appeared in the classified section of The New York Journal advertising a new book, The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats.

 


The Ad

--The ad appeared several times in March 1897

--The ad art was a reprinted Yellow Kid figure from the newspaper sheet music

--The ad was one column wide and three inches tall.

--The ad was published by The New York Journal


The Book

--The book was published in March, 1897

--The book reprinted art from Sunday comics of the past six months

--The book was 5 1/2" wide and 7 1/2" tall

--The book was published G. W. Dillingham Co.


 

Yellow Kid AdThe Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats was written by E. W. Townsend, author of "Chimmie Fadden," and illustrated by R. F. Outcault, originator of the Yellow Kid. This was the same team that produced the full-page Sunday panels every Sunday in the New York Journal. The book was published as a 192-page paperback, and was No. 24 in Billingham's American Authors Library. It generally featured a page of text on the left page and an illustration on the right page, and except for being larger, had an appearance similar to a Big Little Book. It sold for 50 cents! Today it is acknowledged to be the first comic book based on the fact that it contained a collection of Sunday reprints. In fact, the only original art in the entire book was on the cover (see page 3) and next to the title page (see page 4)! To document this fact and increase the validity of identifying this book as the first American comic book. Table 1 at the end of this newsletter lists each illustration in the book by page number and identifies the date of the Sunday newspaper comic book where the art was originally published.

The art in the book has been the subject of some recent controversy. In his introduction for the book reprinting his collection of Yellow Kid pages, Bill Blackbeard (1995, page 129) wrote "The panels from the Humorist appear much as they did originally. Unfortunately, most were redrawn, faithfully if somewhat crudely, by a hand other than Outcault's (probably because the original art had already been destroyed). Engraving plates from the printed episodes would have necessitated eliminating the color, too costly a process for a one-shot title in a series." And yet, I believe that may be exactly what happened! Anyone taking the time to carefully compare the art in the Sunday pages with the art in the book will see that the art is identical and that the book does not contain a redrawn version of that found in the Sunday pages. Admittedly, the art in the book has eliminated all color and, thus, some of the details found in the Sunday pages. However if one compares the outline of the characters in the Sunday pages and the book and the layout of each panel, it becomes clear that they are physically identical! They are not similar as they might have been if an artist had carefully redrawn each panel, they are identical. This means that some mechanical means was used to translate the Sunday art into the images appearing in the book. Figure 1 at the bottom of this page is a section of the Sunday page dated 15 November 1896. Figure 2 at the bottom of this page is the art reproduced from the book on page 64. Compare them for yourself! The color is missing from Figure 2, and with it, some of the details like the stripes on some of the boys' shirts. However, if you coincident with the shapes in Figure 1. Such physical perfection does not occur when an artist redraws a scene; rather, it occurs when a mechanical means is used to reproduce a scene. The same relationship between outlines of the characters holds for all of the art in the book -- thus, none of it was redrawn! It was simply reproduced without color or detail, probably to hold the costs down.

This is a vary rare book. I can identify seven, and possibly eight, copies. Given that there must be a few copies I am not aware of, I would guess that about a dozen volumes currently exist. Fortunately, it is not a wonderful book. It has great historical significance, but it doesn't have great stories or art!

 Yellow Kid Figure 1

Fig. 1

Yellow Kid Figure 2

Fig. 2

 

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Richard D. Olson, Ph.D., 40 Infinity Drive, Poplarville, MS 39470-9006
(769) 717-4077
redoak2002@gmail.com


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