San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum is hosting an exhibit of controversy in comic strips, including both the offending strips and the hate-mail they generated.
A TIME LINE OF COMIC STRIP CONTROVERSY
1900s: The Yellow Kid and the Katzenjammer Kids are cited for bad influence on youth.
1910s: In Polly and Her Pals, the "new woman" dares to show ankle.
1930s: Little Orphan Annie creator Harold Gray ridicules labor and FDR's New Deal. Dick Tracy becomes the first action strip to depict violence in America's backyard.
1940s: In Li'l Abner, Al Capp kicks against the establishment.
1950s: Pogo creator Walt Kelly lampoons Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy.
1960s: On Stage introduces a black character; several papers cancel the strip.
1970s: "How come there's no blacks in this honky outfit?" asks Lt. Flap in Beetle Bailey. Garry Trudeau brings hashish and Watergate to the funnies in Doonesbury.
