A day for endings and new beginnings: on this day in 1995, Calvin and Hobbes ended its long and memorable run. Check out the final strip below:

On this day in 1946, George Wunder took over the popular strip Terry and the Pirates from Milton Caniff. Wunder kept up the strip until his retirement in 1973.

On this day in 1913, Jerry on the Job made its comic debut. At the height of his popularity, one of Jerry’s “jobs” was as a mascot for Grape Nuts.

There’s too much to say about this great creator of comics, so we’ll just stick to the facts: Stan was born on this day in 1922 and he is the co-creator of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and many other characters. He’s still at it, too! Happy Birthday, Stan!

Here’s a grisly one, Arf Lovers. On this day in 1955, the body of Ham Fisher was discovered following his suicide in September of that year. But let’s remember him instead as the creator of Joe Palooka, defender of democracy.

This limestone likeness of Joe Palooka resides (appropriately) in Oolitic, Indiana

The internet gremlins fucked up and Wonder Woman is a post-Christmas post and worst of all DJ David B.’s Comic Tune Tuesday has been lost in the blogosphere. My deep apologies to David and his many fans. You can see below how Wonder Woman feels about all of this…

Born on this day in 1894, Russell Patterson was the creator of Mamie, a 1930s strip about a stylish young woman in New York. The strip influenced flapper-fashion of the day. Besides his famous line work, Patterson also produced oil paintings as a former pupil of Claude Monet.

It is rumored that Ripley changed his birthday to Christmas Day from the less exciting Boxing Day (Dec 26th). Believe it or not!

He sure knew how to impress the ladies.

Christmas Eve, 1949, proved to be a very happy one for this detective hero when he finally married his true love after a courtship that lasted 18 years.

Otto Sogolow began contributing his cartoons to to the New Yorker magazine in the 1920s. It was in this magazine that his most famous creation, the Little King, debuted in 1931. The comic was characterized by its bold, simple shapes and lines and dependence on visual rather than verbal gags, which led to its worldwide popularity. It was later syndicated by King Features and enjoyed some commercial success — the Little King appeared in everything from Betty Boop cartoons to cigarette ads to his own comic book. Otto was born on this day in 1900. At the bottom of this post is a sweet little unpublished drawing of the King from my collection. forbidden Soglow see my new book Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings.