Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers

Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers was an American gag-a-day celebrity comics comic strip by Stuart Carothers^[1] and later Elzie C. Segar starring Charlie Chaplin. It ran in syndication from March 29, 1915, until September 16, 1917.^[2] It was one of the earliest comic strips inspired by the popularity of a celebrity.

Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers was published in the Chicago Herald.^[3] The comic strip cashed in on the tremendous popularity of the comedian at the time. It was created by Stewart W. Carothers in March 1915,^[2] who drew and wrote the stories until his tragic early death from defenestration.^[1] Two cartoonists credited as Warren and Ramsey took over the series until they were replaced by Elzie C. Segar, at that time still an amateur.^[4] On February 29, 1916, Segar published his first Chaplin strip. The daily version ran until July 15, 1916. His Sunday version ran longer, from March 12, 1916, until September 16, 1917.^{[5] [6]} It was his first professional cartooning job. Contrary to his predecessors, who mostly borrowed ideas from Chaplin's films, Segar thought up his own jokes. He gave Chaplin a tiny sidekick named "Luke the Gook" to act as a straight man to his gags.

In 1917, five books were published by M.A. Donohue & Co., in 'Best of' style collections. Four of them being painting/coloring books.^[7] These books are considered to be from the Platinum Age.^[8]

Published collections;

• Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers, Series 1, No 315
• Charlie Chaplin in the Movies, No 316
• Charlie Chaplin Up in the Air, No 317
• Charlie Chaplin in the Army, No 318
• Charlie Chaplin's Funny Stunts, in Full Color, No. 380

Despite Chaplin's popularity, the comic strip wasn't a huge success in the United States, mostly due to the fact that all artists involved were basically amateurs.

• Inside Woody Allen , another newspaper comic strip based on a comedic film performer.
• Charlie Chaplin comics

• Charley Chaplin's Comic Capers, A Collection {A 'Internet Archive' digital collection of book scans, and daily comics.}
• "Teary Eyes" Anderson in Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers: Series 1, No. 315. {Video review and narration of first book.}
• Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers v1 315 {Scans of first book, hosted by comicbookplus.com.}
• U'Ren, Christine. "Ripped from the Funny Pages, Part 3: Celebrity Cartoonists, Chaplin, and Other Tramps," Silent San Francisco (Oct. 19, 2015).

• 1915 comics debuts
• 1917 comics endings
• American comic strips
• Comics based on films
• Comic strips based on real people
• Comic strips set in the United States
• Cultural depictions of Charlie Chaplin
• Defunct American comics
• Gag-a-day comics
• Public domain comics
• Comic strips started in the 1910s
• Comic strip stubs

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All stub articles