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Famous Cartoon Characters and Where Each One Really Started

The books, comics, records and shorts where famous cartoon characters first appeared, from Winnie-the-Pooh and Mickey Mouse to Dora the Explorer.

By Written Facts StaffSeptember 9, 2020Updated October 14, 20267 min read

You can picture Mickey's round ears or Scooby-Doo's goofy grin without even trying. But do you know where they came from? Below are the best-known cartoon characters of the past century, from Winnie-the-Pooh to Dora the Explorer, with who created each one and exactly when and where they first appeared. Many of them began somewhere you might not expect: a children's book, a comic strip, a novelty record or a greeting card. They reached a screen only later.

Where cartoons began

Hand-drawn animation is older than any character on this list. French animator Émile Cohl made Fantasmagorie, considered the first traditional hand-drawn animated cartoon, and it was released on August 17, 1908. The famous characters came later. The first of them started on paper.

Winnie-the-Pooh

Pooh is older than Mickey Mouse. A. A. Milne published the book Winnie-the-Pooh, illustrated by E. H. Shepard, on October 14, 1926. The sequel, The House at Pooh Corner, followed in 1928. The original 1926 book entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2022.

The theater shorts

Two years after Pooh's book came out, short cartoons shown in movie theaters started producing the stars people still recognize today.

Mickey Mouse

Mickey debuted on November 18, 1928, in Steamboat Willie, a short by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks with synchronized sound. That film, along with its original versions of Mickey and Minnie, entered the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2024. Later versions of the characters are not covered.

Donald Duck

Donald first appeared in The Wise Little Hen, a Silly Symphony cartoon released on June 9, 1934. Clarence Nash provided his voice.

Daffy Duck

Warner Bros. answered with its own duck. Daffy debuted in the Looney Tunes short Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery and released on April 17, 1937.

Tom and Jerry

When the cat and mouse first appeared, they had different names: Jasper and Jinx. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera introduced them in the MGM short Puss Gets the Boot on February 10, 1940.

Bugs Bunny

Five months later, Tex Avery directed A Wild Hare, released on July 27, 1940. This is the short where Bugs Bunny first appeared in his definitive form and personality. The same director had launched Daffy three years earlier.

The comic pages

While studios were filling theaters, comic books and newspaper strips were creating their own characters. Many of them would later move to animation.

Superman

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman in Cleveland, Ohio. He debuted in Action Comics #1, which went on sale on April 18, 1938.

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston and artist H. G. Peter. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8, published on October 21, 1941.

Snoopy

Charles M. Schulz's Snoopy first showed up in the Peanuts comic strip on October 4, 1950. At that point he was a puppy who still walked on four legs.

The Smurfs

Belgian cartoonist Peyo (Pierre Culliford) introduced the Smurfs on October 23, 1958. They appeared in issue #1071 of the comics magazine Spirou, inside the story La Flûte à six trous.

Records and Saturday-morning TV

The same year the Smurfs appeared, another group of characters got its start on a record instead of a page. Television soon took over as the place where new characters began.

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Ross Bagdasarian Sr. created Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1958, recording under the stage name David Seville. Their "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Penelope Pitstop

Penelope Pitstop first appeared in Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races, which premiered on CBS on September 14, 1968. Janet Waldo voiced her.

Scooby-Doo

Almost exactly a year later, on September 13, 1969, Hanna-Barbera and CBS debuted Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the show.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake reversed the usual order: she was a product first and a cartoon later. Muriel Fahrion designed her for American Greetings in the late 1970s. In 1979, Kenner released scented rag dolls of the character.

From the Disney Renaissance to cable

By the late 1980s, big studio films and new cable channels were introducing characters to a new generation.

Ariel

Ariel debuted in The Little Mermaid on November 17, 1989, voiced by Jodi Benson. The film launched what became known as the Disney Renaissance.

Beavis and Butt-Head

Mike Judge created the pair, who first appeared in the 1992 short film Frog Baseball. Their series premiered on MTV on March 8, 1993.

Eric Cartman

Trey Parker and Matt Stone created Cartman for Comedy Central's South Park. He first appeared in the premiere episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe," on August 13, 1997.

The Powerpuff Girls

Craig McCracken's The Powerpuff Girls debuted as a full series on Cartoon Network on November 18, 1998. That was 70 years to the day after Steamboat Willie.

Dora the Explorer

Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes and Eric Weiner co-created Dora the Explorer. The show premiered on Nickelodeon on August 14, 2000.

What these characters have in common

Look at where each one started and a pattern appears. Pooh began in a book, Superman, Wonder Woman, Snoopy and the Smurfs in comics, Alvin on a record, and Strawberry Shortcake on greeting cards and dolls. In our view, that is part of why they have lasted: each one already had fans before it reached television. The oldest are now old enough that some of their earliest versions belong to the public. Pooh's first book became public domain in 2022, and Mickey's first film followed in 2024.

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