The first issue of the American satirical magazine Cracked is published. Mascot
Sylvester P. Smythe appears on the front cover of its first issue. The magazine will run until February 2007.
May 26: The first episode of
Jack Cole's Betsy and Me is published. After Cole's suicide on 13 August the series will be continued by Dwight Parks until 27 December.[8]
August 22: Belgian comics artist
Pom suffers a
nervous breakdown, which lets his latest Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber story to be interrupted in the papers. Gaston Ebinger therefore makes a filler comic titled Intermezzo voor Detectives, which will run until 6 September, after which Pom continues his Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber story again.[10]
October 23: In the
Johan and Peewit story The Flute with Six Holes by
PeyoThe Smurfs make their debut, as well as their leader
Papa Smurf.[18] They eventually become a successful spin-off comic.[18]
November 8: Dutch comics artist Pieter J. Kuhn suffers a heart attack. As a result Kapitein Rob is interrupted for half a year. It will restart again in Het Parool on 30 June 1959.[19]
November 17: The first episode of
Frank O'Neal's Short Ribs is published.[20]
December 12: La mesa degli scheletri (The skeletons’ mesa) by
Gianluigi Bonelli and
Galep; Mefisto, the
Tex Willer's nemesis, makes his comeback. The villain, in his first appearance a simple illusionist, here becomes definitively an evil wizard with unsettling paranormal powers.[21]
September 20: Aleksander Dobrinov, Bulgarian caricaturist, cartoonist and comics artist, dies at age 60.[49]
October
October 4:
Jack King, American animator and comics artist (assisted on Mickey Mouse), dies at age 72.[50]
October 26:
Clare Victor Dwiggins, also known as Dwig, American comics artist (School Days, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn), dies at age 74.[51]
October 28: Mario Pompei, Italian comics artist and animator (Bice e Bauci, Saputino, Il Prode Anselmo, Armando il Pittore, Pinco Pallino, Isolina Marzabotto), dies at age 55.[52]
December
December 8: Andres C. Audiffred, Mexican comics artist (El Señor Pestaña, Chom Prieto, Don Lupito), dies at age 63.[53]
Specific date unknown
Alex Akerbladh, Swedish-British comics artist (drew various
celebrity comics based on popular music hall and film comedians), dies at age 71 or 72.[54]
^Gravett, Paul, "1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die", Universe, page 209.
^Irvine, Alex (2010). "1950s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle.
Dorling Kindersley. p. 91.
ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. This issue of Superman was the first DC comic to include a letters column that would become a regular feature, though readers' letters were published in issue #3 of Real Fact Comics in July 1946.
^Irvine "1950s" in Dolan, p. 89: "Following her successful test run in the pages of Showcase #9 and #10, Lois Lane got her own title Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane in which Superman was ever the prankster."
The first issue of the American satirical magazine Cracked is published. Mascot
Sylvester P. Smythe appears on the front cover of its first issue. The magazine will run until February 2007.
May 26: The first episode of
Jack Cole's Betsy and Me is published. After Cole's suicide on 13 August the series will be continued by Dwight Parks until 27 December.[8]
August 22: Belgian comics artist
Pom suffers a
nervous breakdown, which lets his latest Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber story to be interrupted in the papers. Gaston Ebinger therefore makes a filler comic titled Intermezzo voor Detectives, which will run until 6 September, after which Pom continues his Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber story again.[10]
October 23: In the
Johan and Peewit story The Flute with Six Holes by
PeyoThe Smurfs make their debut, as well as their leader
Papa Smurf.[18] They eventually become a successful spin-off comic.[18]
November 8: Dutch comics artist Pieter J. Kuhn suffers a heart attack. As a result Kapitein Rob is interrupted for half a year. It will restart again in Het Parool on 30 June 1959.[19]
November 17: The first episode of
Frank O'Neal's Short Ribs is published.[20]
December 12: La mesa degli scheletri (The skeletons’ mesa) by
Gianluigi Bonelli and
Galep; Mefisto, the
Tex Willer's nemesis, makes his comeback. The villain, in his first appearance a simple illusionist, here becomes definitively an evil wizard with unsettling paranormal powers.[21]
September 20: Aleksander Dobrinov, Bulgarian caricaturist, cartoonist and comics artist, dies at age 60.[49]
October
October 4:
Jack King, American animator and comics artist (assisted on Mickey Mouse), dies at age 72.[50]
October 26:
Clare Victor Dwiggins, also known as Dwig, American comics artist (School Days, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn), dies at age 74.[51]
October 28: Mario Pompei, Italian comics artist and animator (Bice e Bauci, Saputino, Il Prode Anselmo, Armando il Pittore, Pinco Pallino, Isolina Marzabotto), dies at age 55.[52]
December
December 8: Andres C. Audiffred, Mexican comics artist (El Señor Pestaña, Chom Prieto, Don Lupito), dies at age 63.[53]
Specific date unknown
Alex Akerbladh, Swedish-British comics artist (drew various
celebrity comics based on popular music hall and film comedians), dies at age 71 or 72.[54]
^Gravett, Paul, "1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die", Universe, page 209.
^Irvine, Alex (2010). "1950s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle.
Dorling Kindersley. p. 91.
ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. This issue of Superman was the first DC comic to include a letters column that would become a regular feature, though readers' letters were published in issue #3 of Real Fact Comics in July 1946.
^Irvine "1950s" in Dolan, p. 89: "Following her successful test run in the pages of Showcase #9 and #10, Lois Lane got her own title Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane in which Superman was ever the prankster."