some background info about the yellow kid. Yellow Kid was created during the time when yellow fever was killing many people in the U.S. If a family member contracted yellow fever the family did not talk about it to others for fear of being isolated from the community. This (along with no known cure or protection from the disease) help spread the disease. I think Robert Outcault and William Randolph Hearst did a great thing for Americans by publishing The Yellow Kid as it helped people to talk openly about yellow fever and take action to do what they could to help reduce the spread of The Fever.
Link to the book:
The Yellow Kid (1896)