When Dirks submitted his sketches , Block dubbed them The Katzenjammer Kids , and the first strip appeared on December 12 , 1897 .
Editor Rudolph Block asked Dirks to develop a Sunday comic based on Wilhelm Busch 's cautionary tale , Max und Moritz .
When Dirks submitted Dirks ' sketches , Block dubbed them The Katzenjammer Kids , and the first strip appeared on December 12 , 1897 .
Editor Rudolph Block asked Dirks to develop a Sunday comic based on Wilhelm Busch 's cautionary tale , Max und Moritz .