The public birth of King Kong, the movie monster, was 90 years ago. The movie debuted in New York City on March 2, 1933. The movie went national on April 7, 1933. Here we celebrate the first comic strip appearance.
On March 27, 1933 some newspapers started running the RKO Radio Pictures supplied promotional King Kong comic strip in anticipation of the movie’s release in local theaters (some papers ran it the following week).
The movie received rave reviews from the public and critics when released in New York City and was expected to do boffo box office around the country.
Here from The Lexington Herald is the six strip series published March 27 to April 1, 1933. The earliest I could find.
The comics adaptation was drawn by Glenn Cravath, the scripter is unknown.
The comic strip can be read in the 1933 pressbook in a supersized format.
And STILL not in public domain, for pete’s sake. Ridiculous.