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Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
HAROLD KNERR (1882-1949) "Find me my boys or else ---!" Original "Katzenjammer Kids" Sunday comic, published October 13, 1935. Pen and ink on stiff paper. 415x521 mm; 16 1/4x20 1/2 inches, on 18x23-inch sheet. Signed "Knerr" and dated "'35" in last panel, "10-13" in seventh panel, and ink stamped with full date in left margin.
Rudolph Dirks was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst to develop The Katzenjammer Kids, which starred Hans and Fritz, naughty protagonists who rebelled against the authority of "Mama" and "der Captain." After fifteen years of success, Dirks wanted to take a temporary year-long hiatus, which was denied by the syndicate. When he left without permission, Harold Knerr took over the strip. Dirks sued, but despite a long legal battle, Hearst was allowed to continue the strip's publication under Knerr's direction. However, Dirks was permitted to create a nearly identical strip for the rival Pulitzer paper in 1914, which he initially titled Hans and Fritz, but later renamed The Captain and the Kids due to rising anti-German sentiment during World War I. With similar plotlines and characters, the two comics soon achieved near equal popularity.
![HAROLD KNERR (1882-1949) Find me my boys or else ---! [CARTOONS / COMICS / KATZENJAMMER KIDS]](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//352\774352.jpg)
