"Yellow Kid" Art Found

What is believed to be the largest collection of "Yellow Kid" art anywhere in the world was unearthed a few months ago in the archives of Syracuse University's Bird Library, located in Syracuse, New York. 11 original pen-and-ink drawings of the Kid, 10 of which have never been published, plus numerous complete runs of The Yellow Kid magazine, were found wrapped in corrugated cardboard at the end of a row of other material published by New York City's prolific Street & Smith company.
The Yellow Kid first appeared in Richard Felton Outcault's Hogan's Alley cartoon in the May 5, 1895, edition of the New York World, a newspaper owned by Joseph Pulitzer. The character, who achieved instant popularity, wore a yellow nightshirt upon which social commentary was written. In 1896, Outcault was lured to William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, where he drew his character under the title The Yellow Kid. Hogan's World, now drawn by newcomer George Luks, continued to be printed in the World for some years after. The Kid's yellow shirt became a symbol of the vicious newspaper war between Pulitzer and Hearst and gave rise to the term "yellow journalism."
In 1897, Street & Smith began publication of The Yellow Kid magazine, billed as "a fortnightly magazine of wit, fiction, and illustration." Historians generally agree that this was America's first comic book. The Yellow Kid appeared on the cover of the magazine -- though not the inside -- for six issues, then disappeared from the seventh. For issue #10, the title of the magazine was changed to The Yellow Book; five issues later, it folded. Outcault moved on to other cartooning work, including the creation of another famous character, Buster Brown.
One of the Yellow Kid drawings found at the Syracuse University library is the original for issue #1 of the magazine. It shows the Kid surrounded by Paste-up paraphernalia; his shirt says, "Say, if you see it in de Yeller Kid, it goes, see?" The rest of the drawings, all unpublished, are believed by the library to have been intended for later covers. They show the Kid in various roles, including boxer, hunter, farmer, ship's captain, cowboy, singer, and society swell.
Mark Weimer, curator of special collections at SU's library, said that the university plans to have the drawings professionally cleaned and mounted for possible eventual display in the library.