A book about the comics of the “Katzenjammer Kids”: It has to be cheeky – culture

The father goes on a long journey, but the farewell is rather undramatic, it should only be for a short time. “Now he’s gone, Jüm Voder,” says Margaretha’s mother to her children when they’re back home: “Much de great gracious God em testify.” Be commended to God, the father, Johannes Dirks, if he is looking for a future in America for himself and his family – which he no longer sees at home in the small town of Heide in Dithmarschen in Holstein. It is September 1883, immigrants are very welcome in New World America. Johannes finds work in Chicago, and just seven months later Margaretha follows with the children – one of them, Rudolph, will make a major contribution to American culture before the end of the century, the “Katzenjammer Kids”, the comic series which is printed in the Sunday papers of William Randolph Hearst, later also in those of the competitor Joseph Pulitzer. It is one of the oldest comic series, in Scandinavia it is still printed today.