 After a series of legal battles between 1912 and 1914, Dirks left the Hearst organization and began a new strip, first titled Hans and Fritz and then The Captain and the Kids.It featured the same characters seen in "The Katzenjammer Kids", which was continued by Knerr.The two separate versions of the strip competed with each other until 1979, when "The Captain and the Kids" ended its six-decade run.