The origin of the character was Buck Nix, a goat Smith drew in 1908 for the Chicago Evening Journal.

He introduced a new goat character when Old Doc Yak began as a daily strip on February 19, 1912, with the Sunday page starting a few weeks later on March 3.

On December 7, 1930, Old Doc Yak was revived as a topper for The Gumps Sunday page, continuing in that capacity until February 25, 1934.

[2] In 1998, Old Doc Yak and Yutch appeared in Valiant Varmints, a one-shot comic book from Shanda Fantasy Arts.

A masked figure called 'Bullethead' arranges for the anthropomorphic superheroes of the title, including Fission Chicken, to be distracted battling threats while he goes after a mysterious item; he turns out to be Doc Yak, who just wants his old license plate back (after losing it decades ago to the Gumps).