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Rudolph Dirks (February 26, 1877, Heide, Schleswig-Holstein Province – April 20, 1968, New York City) was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, well known for ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' (later known as ''The Captain and the Kids''). Dirks was born in Heide, Germany to Johannes and Margaretha Dirks.〔(Lambiek: "Born in Heide, Germany, Rudolph Dirks moved with his parents to Chicago at the age of seven." )〕 When he was seven years old, his father, a woodcarver, moved the family to Chicago, Illinois. After having sold various cartoons to local magazines Rudolph moved to New York City and found work as a cartoonist. His younger brother Gus soon followed his brother's example. He held several jobs as an illustrator, culminating in a position with William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal''. The circulation war between the ''Journal'' and Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'' was raging. The ''World'' had a huge success with the full-color Sunday feature, ''Down in Hogan's Alley'', better known as the ''Yellow Kid'', starting in 1895. Editor Rudolph Block asked Dirks to develop a Sunday comic based on Wilhelm Busch's cautionary tale, ''Max und Moritz''. When Dirks submitted his sketches, Block dubbed them ''The Katzenjammer Kids'', and the first strip appeared on December 12, 1897. Gus Dirks assisted his brother with ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' during the first few years, until his suicide on June 10, 1902. ==Comics competition== Dirks took time off from his ''Journal'' work to serve his country in the Spanish–American War and on other occasions. In 1912, he requested a year's leave to tour Europe with his wife. The request led to a rupture with the ''Journal''. After a lengthy and notorious legal battle, the federal courts ruled that Dirks had the right to continue to draw his characters for a rival newspaper chain but that the ''Journal'' retained the right to the title ''The Katzenjammer Kids''. Dirks thereupon began drawing a comic strip titled ''Hans and Fritz'' for the ''World'', beginning in 1914. Anti-German sentiment during World War I led to the strip being renamed ''The Captain and the Kids''. The ''Journal'' chose H. H. Knerr to continue ''The Katzenjammer Kids'', and he and his successors have carried it on to the present day. ''The Captain and the Kids'' was distributed by United Feature Syndicate while King Features Syndicate handled ''The Katzenjammer Kids''. The success of ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' was due to more than just lucky circumstances. Dirks was a very gifted cartoonist with superb timing and a colorful gallery of different characters, including Hans and Fritz, Der Captain, Der Inspector and Mama. In the mid-1950s, a romantic swindler named Fineas Flub was introduced to the strip. Characters such as Rollo never appeared in Dirks' version of the strip. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rudolph Dirks」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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