Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for May 2-8, 2025…

280 years ago May 5, 1745 Swedish caricaturist and autobiographical comics pioneer Carl August Ehrensvärd is born.

160 years ago May 5, 1865 German artist Eugen Von Baumgarten is born. He draws political cartoons as “E. Vaube” and runs his own publishing house.

155 years ago May 6, 1870 Political cartoonist John T. McCutcheon is born.

145 years ago May 4, 1880 Writer-artist Robert Moore Brinkerhoff is born. The editorial cartoonist creates the Little Mary Mixup strip.

140 years ago May 2, 1885 Cartoonist Lee W. Stanley is born. He creates The Old Home Town panel cartoons.

140 years ago May 7, 1885 Character actor George “Gabby” Hayes is born. His roles as a cowboy sidekick lead to licensing his name and image to Fawcett comic books.

130 years ago May 3, 1895 Russian artist Konstantin Kuznjecov is born. Lambiek calls him “one of the most important artists during the [1930s] Serbian Golden Age of comics.”

130 years ago May 5, 1895 Richard Outcault’s Hogan’s Alley begins its color publication in Pulitzer’s New York World.

125 years ago May 6, 1900 The Danish artist Vilhelm Hansen is born. He’s known for co-creation (with his wife, Carla) of the funny animal strip Rasmus Klump.

120 years ago May 4, 1905 Czech artist René Klapač is born.

120 years ago May 5, 1905 Mickey Mouse comic strip artist Floyd Gottfredson is born.

115 years ago May 4, 1910 Popeye and NEA artist Bill Zaboly is born.

115 years ago May 5, 1910 Belgian author Octave Joly is born. He writes Les Belles Histoires de l’Oncle Paul for Spirou.

100 years ago May 3, 1925 Alain Saint-Ogan’s Zig et Puce first appears in l’Excelsior’s Dimanche Illustré supplement.

100 years ago May 3, 1925 Award-winning actress Rosemary Rice is born. While she’s best known for her performance on the Mama TV show, she also plays Betty Cooper on the Archie Andrews Show radio series.

95 years ago May 5, 1930 Actor Will Hutchins is born. While he’s especially known for playing Tom Brewster in the Sugarfoot TV series, he also played Dagwood in the 1968-1969 Blondie series.

95 years ago May 8, 1930 A promotional stunt by Le Petit Vingtième draws a crowd that demonstrates the popularity of Tintin.

90 years ago May 5, 1935 Indonesian writer-artist Ganes T.H. is born. He creates Si Buta dari Gua Hantu.

85 years ago May 4, 1940 Artist John Ridgway is born. He’s especially known for his work on Judge Dredd, Doctor Who, and Hellblazer.

85 years ago May 8, 1940 Chicago Daily News Literary Editor Sterling North denounces comic books in an editorial titled “A National Disgrace (And a Challenge to American Parents).” He kicks off a decade and a half of attacks on the art form, contending that comics are “a poisonous mushroom growth of the last two years” and that they are “guilty of a cultural slaughter of the innocents.”

85 years ago May 8, 1940 Several Belgian comics shut down, as Nazis invade Belgium. They include Le Petit Vingtième and Kindervriend.

80 years ago May 4, 1945 Brazilian artist Antônio Cedraz is born.

70 years ago May 2, 1955 Cartoonist Jerry Scott is born. He co-creates Baby Blues (with Rick Kirkman) and Zits (with Jim Borgman) after working on Nancy.

65 years ago May 7, 1960 Artist Leo O’Mealia dies at age 76. He was a political cartoonist and sports cartoonist and worked on newspaper strips and DC comics.

60 years ago May 2, 1965 The last installment of Right around Home appears.

60 years ago May 3, 1965 Bud Blake’s Tiger strip begins.

55 years ago May 3, 1970 Artist Ken Kling dies at age 74. He created the Joe Quince and Windy Riley strips.

50 years ago May 4, 1975 Moe Howard (born Moe Horwitz) dies of a stroke at age 77. The leader of the Three Stooges characters, he and the other Stooges appeared in comics and cartoons. He was the father of Joan Howard, who married Norman Maurer, who became the Stooges’ manager and involved the characters in comics.

50 years ago May 8, 1975 Animator and Sad Sack creator George Baker dies at age 59.

45 years ago May 5, 1980 Writer-artist Carl Pfeufer dies at age 69. He co-created Don Dixon with Bob Moore and Super Green Beret with Otto Binder. He was a member of the Funnies, Inc. studio, where he drew Sub-Mariner, and he drew Tom Mix stories for Fawcett.

45 years ago May 5, 1980 The Swedish writer who created the inventive farmer Åsa-Nisse, Stig Cederholm, dies at age 75.

40 years ago May 5, 1985 Finnish artist, creator of the Rymy-Eetu strip, Erkki Tanttu dies at age 77.

35 years ago May 7, 1990 The Italian artist Pier Lorenzo De Vita dies at age 80. He created Tuffolino and then produced comics stories of Disney characters.

30 years ago May 5, 1995 Chinese pioneering manhua artist Ye Qianyu dies at age 88. He created Mr. Wang.

25 years ago May 3, 2000 Italian writer-artist Dario Guzzon dies at age 74.

20 years ago May 2, 2005 Prolific Turkish artist Sahap Ayhan dies at age 78 or 79.

20 years ago May 4, 2005 Cartoonist Don Trachte dies at age 89. He assisted Carl Anderson on Henry and worked on the Sunday strip following Anderson’s death.

20 years ago May 5, 2005 George Pérez signs a five-year exclusive contract with DC (and is followed by J.G. Jones and Bart Sears later in the month).

20 years ago May 8, 2005 Turkish artist Mehmet Gülergün dies at age 75.

15 years ago May 3, 2010 Writer Peter O’Donnell, who contributed to Garth and Romeo Brown and created Modesty Blaise, dies at the age of 90.

15 years ago May 7, 2010 Iron Man 2 opens in America. The sequel to Iron Man (2008) returns Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and others to their roles in the first film and grosses more than $600 million in theaters worldwide.

10 years ago May 3, 2015 The newspaper feature Grin and Bear It ends.

10 years ago May 7, 2015 Australian artist John Dixon dies following a stroke at age 86. He was known for his strip Air Hawk and the Flying Doctors.

5 years ago May 2, 2020 Artist Armando Huerta dies by suicide at age 50.

5 years ago May 2, 2020 British cartoonist, toy maker, and puzzle developer Paul Sellers dies at age 89.

5 years ago May 7, 2020 Writer-artist and animator Richard Sala dies at age 65. His quirky horror stories included The Chuckling Whatsit.