ILLUSTRATIONS

Lost and Found: Eleven original illustrations of America’s first recurring comic strip character, the Yellow Kid, have been found in Syracuse University’s Byrd Library. The 11 ink, pencil and watercolor drawings by Richard Felton Outcault make up the largest body of original Yellow Kid artwork in existence. Only four other original illustrations exist, a curator said. They were discovered by a staffer indexing Syracuse’s uncatalogued collection of material from the Street & Smith publishing company. In the 1890s, the Yellow Kid became a weapon in the ruthless New York City circulation war between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, and at the height of his popularity, the Kid appeared on buttons, cracker tins, cigarette packs, games, ladies’ fans, puzzles and toys. When the Yellow Kid’s fame faded, Outcault turned to a new feature that earned him greater renown, “Buster Brown,” who later became the trademark for a line of shoes.