What Was the First Case of a Comic Adapted for Film?

Question

I've found some early serials from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Batman and The Phantom that were adapted from comic.

This started me wondering -- comics are a visual medium and so is film, so it seems filmmakers lost no time in starting to adapt comics to film. What was the first instance of a comic being adapted into film? (I don't mean a case where there were films, books, and comics all existing, but one where the material was originally comics and not film or book, and it was turned into a film.)

Note: Yes, there's a Yahoo answer about Adventures of Captain Marvel, but it's wrong. And note I'm not limiting it to a comic book. Newspaper comics are also acceptable.

Answer 1

TL;DR

In the category "comics made into animated films", the winners are:

• Katzenjammer Kids ("The Katzenjammer Kids in School", 1898)
• Ally Sloper ("Ally Sloper", 1898)

In the category "comics made into live-action short films", the winner is:

• Desperate Desmond ("Desperate Desmond Almost Succeeds", 1911)

In the category "Silent film 2-reel shorts", the winner is:

• Bringing Up Father ("Jiggs in Society", 1920)

In the category "Silent films", the winner is:

• Little Annie Rooney ("Little Annie Rooney", 1925)

In the category "Feature length talkie films", the winner is:

• Skippy ("Skippy", 1931)

And, in the most relevant category of "The first SF&F" movie based on comics:

• Prehistoric Peeps ("Prehistoric Peeps", 1905)

---

---

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_English-language_comics

• Prehistoric Peeps ("Prehistoric Peeps", 1905)

  Generally believed to be the first film depiction of dinosaurs.

  This seems to me to be an early precursor to Flintstones.

• Adventures of Captain Marvel's official release date was March 28, 1941

• Superman: Superman, was released on September 26,

---

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_comic_strips:

• Little Annie Rooney (1925)

  Mary Pickford starred as a girl of the slums in William Beaudine's 1925 silent comedy-drama "Little Annie Rooney"

• Ella Cinders (1926)

• Tillie the Toiler (1927)
• Bringing Up Father (1928)
• Harold Teen (1928)

• Skippy (1931)

  Notable since all the previous ones were silent movies. Skippy was a "Talkie".

  Also notable because it was one of the first films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture

Also, if you include "short" movies, the earliest seems:

• Based on The Outbursts of Everett True:

  • series of live-action shorts starting with Everett True Breaks Into The Movies (1916)

---

There's also several earlier (1910s) examples of what Wiki calls "Theatrical short films", whatever that means - seems to be cartoons.

• Based on Desperate Desmond:

  • series of seven live-action shorts (1911–1912), starting with Desperate Desmond Almost Succeeds (1911)

• Based on Little Nemo:

  • Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and his Moving Comics aka Little Nemo (1911, included in the National Film Registry)

• Based on Uncle Mun:

  • Uncle Mun and the Minister (1912)
  • A Thrilling Rescue by Uncle Mun (1912)

• Based on Buster Brown (1902):

  • series of five shorts (1914), starting with Buster Brown on the Care and Treatment of Goats (1914)

• based on Abie the Agent (comic debuted in 1914), seems to have been drawn by the same guy who did "Desperate Desmond":

  Syndicated by King Features, the strip became popular, and in 1917 two animated cartoons were made

  • Iska Worreh (1917)
  • Abie Kabibble Outwitted His Rival (1917)

---

However, the overall winner (if you include animated films) was a tie between:

• Based on The Katzenjammer Kids:

  • The Katzenjammer Kids in School (1898)
  • The Katzenjammer Kids Have a Love Affair (1900)
  • series of eight live-action shorts (1912), starting with The Katzenjammer Kids (1912)
  • series of 37 animated shorts (1916–1918), starting with The Chinese Cook (1916)
  • series of five animated shorts (1920), starting with Knock on the Window, the Door Is a Jamb (1920)
  • The Captain and the Kids (1938–1939) series of 15 animated shorts

• Based on Ally Sloper (curious fact: Sloper has also been cited as an influence on the creation of Charlie Chaplin's "little tramp" character):

  • Ally Sloper (1898)
  • Sloper's Visit to Brighton (1898)

Answer 2

I think "Little Orphan Annie" is a prime candidate. The comic strip debuted in 1924 and was made into a film in 1932.