Comic strips on Wikimedia Commons

1–19 of 19, free to read, from the world's archives.

Where these come from, and who sees what

Every page is shown from the archive that keeps it: the Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and, where this server is set up for them, Europeana and Trove. Nothing is copied to this site. Each work's page names its archive, links to the work there, and states its licence or status as the archive does.

Comics and magazines carry no age ratings, and Golden Age comics and the pulps are full of horror, crime, violence and racist caricature, so each work is placed cautiously from what its archive says about it. Erotica is left out altogether.

Little OnesFunny-animal comics and nursery magazines.
KidsComics and magazines made for children, such as St. Nicholas and Child Life, unless they deal with ghosts, monsters, spies or fights.
TweensHumour and teen comics, science, computing, sport and hobby magazines, true stories and education.
TeensEverything else, including the pulps and anything we cannot tell about; horror, crime, war, westerns, superheroes and romance go no lower; every newspaper, since historic papers carry graphic reports and racist content.
AdultWorks with racist caricature (named, or a series known for it, such as The Spirit's Ebony White), wartime comics of 1941–1946 and jungle comics, which commonly carried it, each with a note saying so; the true-crime magazines and the "weird menace" pulps; sexual themes and gore.
Comic strip

Buster Brown

1902 · 177 pages · Commons

R. F. Outcault's Sunday strip about a well-dressed, badly behaved boy and his dog Tige.
Comic strip

Max und Moritz

1865 · 181 pages · Commons

Wilhelm Busch's story in pictures of two boys' seven pranks, and the end they come to, from 1865.
Comic strip

Mutt and Jeff

1907 · 65 pages · Commons

Bud Fisher's daily strip about a schemer and his small friend, one of the first daily strips.
Comic strip

Krazy Kat comics

1913 · 49 pages · Commons

George Herriman's strip of Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse and the brick, in the Coconino desert.
Comic strip

Mr. Skygack, from Mars

1907 · 107 pages · Commons

A Martian observer misreads life on Earth: an early science-fiction strip from the Chicago Day Book.
Comic strip

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1905

1905 · 15 pages · Commons

Winsor McCay's strip for adults in the Evening Telegram: each night's nightmare after a supper of Welsh rarebit.
Comic strip

Bringing Up Father

1913 · 22 pages · Commons

George McManus's strip of Jiggs, Maggie and new money.
Comic strip

Gasoline Alley

1918 · 19 pages · Commons

Frank King's strip, whose characters aged in real time.
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Thimble Theatre, 1929

1929 · 16 pages · Commons

E. C. Segar's strip in the year Popeye first came aboard.
Comic strip

Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1905

1905 · 23 pages · Commons

Winsor McCay's Sunday page in the New York Herald: Nemo's dreams of Slumberland, drawn at full newspaper size.
Comic strip

Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1906

1906 · 63 pages · Commons

Winsor McCay's Sunday page in the New York Herald: Nemo's dreams of Slumberland, drawn at full newspaper size.
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Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1907

1907 · 66 pages · Commons

Winsor McCay's Sunday page in the New York Herald: Nemo's dreams of Slumberland, drawn at full newspaper size.
Comic strip

Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1908

1908 · 62 pages · Commons

Winsor McCay's Sunday page in the New York Herald: Nemo's dreams of Slumberland, drawn at full newspaper size.
Comic strip

Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1909

1909 · 59 pages · Commons

Winsor McCay's Sunday page in the New York Herald: Nemo's dreams of Slumberland, drawn at full newspaper size.
Comic strip

Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1910

1910 · 18 pages · Commons

Winsor McCay's Sunday page in the New York Herald: Nemo's dreams of Slumberland, drawn at full newspaper size.
Comic strip

Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1911

1911 · 30 pages · Commons

Winsor McCay's Sunday page in the New York Herald: Nemo's dreams of Slumberland, drawn at full newspaper size.
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Yellow Kid

1895 · 54 pages · Commons

R. F. Outcault's Hogan's Alley, the strip that named yellow journalism.
Comic strip

The Katzenjammer Kids

1897 · 47 pages · Commons

Rudolph Dirks's strip of the twins Hans and Fritz and their pranks.
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Happy Hooligan

1900 · 36 pages · Commons

Frederick Opper's strip of a cheerful, unlucky tramp.