10 Facts About Rudolph Dirks

Rudolph Dirks was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, well known for The Katzenjammer Kids.

Rudolph Dirks held several jobs as an illustrator, which culminated in a position with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal.

Editor Rudolph Block asked Dirks to develop a Sunday comic based on Wilhelm Busch's cautionary tale, Max and Moritz.

When Rudolph Dirks submitted his sketches, Block dubbed them The Katzenjammer Kids, and the first strip appeared on December 12,1897.

Gus Rudolph Dirks assisted his brother with The Katzenjammer Kids during the first few years until his suicide on June 10,1902.

Rudolph Dirks thereupon began drawing a comic strip titled Hans and Fritz for the World, beginning in 1914.

Rudolph Dirks was a gifted cartoonist with superb timing and a colorful gallery of different characters, including Hans and Fritz, Der Captain, Der Inspector and Mama.

Rudolph Dirks made substantial contributions to the graphic language of comic strips.

Rudolph Dirks popularized such icons as speed lines, "seeing stars" for pain, and "sawing wood" for snoring.

Rudolph Dirks incrementally passed his cartooning duties on to his son John Rudolph Dirks, who took over The Captain and the Kids around 1955.