High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rudolph Dirks (February 26, 1877 April 20, 1968) was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists. Dirks was born in Heide, Germany to Johannes and Margaretha Dirks. When he was seven years old, his father, a woodcarver, moved the family to Chicago, Illinois. His older brother, Gus Dirks, moved to New York City and found work as a cartoonist. Rudolph soon followed his brother's example. He held several jobs as an illustrator, culminating in a position with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. The circulation war between the Journal and Joseph Pulitzer's New York World was raging.