January 30: The first episode ofMickey Mouse, Eega Beeva and the Mook Treasure byBill Walsh andFloyd Gottfredson is published. The story, published at the height of theCold War, is overlyanti-communist and portrays the villainPeg-Leg Pete as a Soviet officer.
April 1: TheNero storyDe Hoed van Geeraard de Duivel is first published in the newspapers. Halfway the story the main cast memberMadam Pheip makes her debut.[2]
April 14: The first issue of the British comics magazineEagle is published. It will run (in two incarnations) until1994. In its first issueFrank Hampson'sDan Dare makes its debut.
Crypt of Terror debuts with issue #17 (April/May cover date), continuing the numbering ofCrime Patrol —EC Comics
September 4:Mort Walker'sBeetle Bailey makes its debut.[9] Though the original comic strip is set at college and will only be set at a military base in March 1951.[10]
September 5: TheNero storyMoea Papoea is first published in the newspapers. Halfway the story the main cast memberPetoetje makes his debut.
September 15: The first issue of the Dutch comics magazineGrabbelton is published, a supplement ofDe Katholieke Illustratie. it will last until 4 September 1954.[13]
September 24:Kreigh Collins'Mitzi McCoy changes its title toKevin the Bold. It will continue under this title until 1968, whereupon it changes to another title,Up Anchor, and continues until 1972.[14]
October 2:Charles M. Schulz'Peanuts appears for the first time in seven US newspapers. In the first episodeCharlie Brown makes his debut (although he originated in Schulz' previous seriesLi'l Folks).[1]
In films,Destination Moon is the first colorscience fictionfilm, and the first big budget science fiction film sinceThings to Come in 1936.DC Comics is quick to pick up on the renewed interest of the public in science fiction, and a still fromDestination Moon is cover of the new science fiction comic bookStrange Adventures, soon joined by a companion bookMystery in Space.
July 9: Salvador Bartolozzi, Spanish illustrator, theatrical set designer, comics artist (Pipo y Pipa,Pinocho contra Chapete) and publisher (founder of the children's magazine Pinocho), dies at age 68.[26]
July 26:Eduard Thöny, Austrian-German cartoonist, dies at age 84.[27]
