Creator of the comic strip "The Katzenjammer Kids". The strip was taken over by
H.H. Knerr in December 1914 following a lawsuit between the Hearst and Pulitzer publishing empires; Knerr drew the strip until his death. Dirks, who regained the right to draw his characters, resumed the strip in the New York World under the title "Hans und Fritz", later renaming it "The Captain and the Kids" because of the anti-German sentiment during World War I.
Ironically, Knerr was picked by
William Randolph Hearst to take over "Katzenjammer" because of his strip "The Finehiemer Twins" (1903-1914), which was an obviously derivative of "Katzenjammer".
