Charlie Chaplin

Few pop-culture icons can claim a comics pedigree stretching all the way back to the Platinum Age, but Charlie Chaplin made his four-color debut in 1917's Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers #315 — brought to the page by none other than E. C. Segar, the genius who would later give the world Popeye. That alone makes this character a genuine piece of comics history. Over a remarkable span touching more than a century, Chaplin's image and persona found a home in the pages of Judge, Mad, and The New Yorker — satirical institutions all — sharing ink with figures as varied as Uncle Sam, The White Spy and Black Spy, and even Richard Nixon, which tells you everything about the kind of sharp, knowing company this character keeps. With a collector-significant key issue to his name and appearances catalogued across 26 entries, Charlie Chaplin in comics is a fascinating window into how one of the twentieth century's most beloved figures was interpreted, lampooned, and celebrated by the sharpest cartoon minds of every generation.