The Yellow Kid (Mickey Dugan) is an American comic strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, and later William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in the comic strip Hogan's Alley (and later under other names as well), it was one of the first Sunday supplement comic strips in an American newspaper, although its graphical layout had already been thoroughly established in political and other, purely-for-entertainment cartoons. Outcault's use of word balloons in the Yellow Kid influenced the basic appearance and use of balloons in subsequent newspaper comic strips and comic books. The cartoon was created to help educate the wealthy readers of the newspapers in which the comic strip appeared, showing them something of what life was like for people living in poverty. Outcault's aim was to make these wealthy readers more sympathetic to the plight of the poor, rather than judging them, and assuming they deserved to be in poverty. The Yellow Kid is also famous for its connection to the coining of the term "yellow journalism". The idea of "yellow journalism" referred to stories which were sensationalized for the sake of selling papers, and was so named after the "Yellow Kid" cartoons. Although a cartoon, Outcault's work aimed its humor and social commentary at Pulitzer's adult readership. The strip has been described as "a turn-of-the-century theater of the city, in which class and racial tensions of the new urban, consumerist environment were acted out by a mischievous group of New York City kids from the wrong side of the tracks". Character {{Quote box |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |quote=The Yellow Kid was not an individual but a type. When I used to go about the slums on newspaper assignments I would encounter him often, wandering out of doorways or sitting down on dirty doorsteps. I always loved the Kid. He had a sweet character and a sunny disposition, and was generous to a fault. Malice, envy or selfishness were not traits of his, and he never lost his temper.<ref>The Yellow Kid on paper and stage, Origins of the Kid, retrieved 23 March 2011</ref> —Richard F. Outcault, from a 1902 interview|align=right|width=50% |}} The Yellow Kid was a bald, snaggle-toothed barefoot boy who wore an oversized yellow nightshirt and hung around in a slum alley typical of certain areas of squalor that existed in late 19th-century New York City.