History of comics
Comics |
---|
Comics studies |
Methods |
Media formats |
Comics by country and culture |
|
Community |
Comics portal |
The history of comics has followed different paths in different parts of the world. It can be traced back to early precursors such as Trajan's Column, in Rome, Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Bayeux Tapestry.
Early narratives in art
Examples of early
An ancient tradition in India, possibly dating back to at least 700 BCE, had picture showmen narrating stories that were simultaneously presented in painted pictures (also the origin of shadow play with jointed puppets).[1][2]
It took the invention of modern printing techniques to bring the form to a wide audience and become a
Early printing and cartoons
Early printed material concentrated on religious subjects, with densely illustrated versions of the Bible as a widely distributed medium that combined many images with text in order to bring the teachings of Christianity to the illiterate.
Through the 17th and 18th centuries, prints began to tackle aspects of political and social life, and also started to satirize and caricature. Occasionally, prints would contain several images to relate multiple scenes of a narrative, for instance in Frans Hogenberg's depictions of the Spanish Fury (1576) and the murder of Henry III of France (1589).[4]
One of the first British creators of sequential series of satirical art was
While surviving works of these periods, such as Francis Barlow's A True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish Plot (c. 1682) as well as The Punishments of Lemuel Gulliver and A Rake's Progress by William Hogarth (1726), can be seen to establish a narrative over a number of images, it wasn't until the 19th century that the elements of such works began to crystallise into the comic strip.
The speech balloon also evolved over the centuries, from the medieval origins of the phylacter, a label, usually in the form of a scroll, which identified a character either through naming them or using a short text to explain their purpose. Artists such as George Cruikshank helped codify such phylacters as balloons rather than scrolls, though at this time they were still called labels. They now represented narrative, but for identification purposes rather than dialogue within the work, and artists soon discarded them in favour of running dialogue underneath the panels. Speech balloons were not reintroduced to the form until Richard F. Outcault used them for dialogue.[8]
Form established
The Glasgow Looking Glass, published in 1826, was arguably the first comic magazine. A satirical publication, later known as The Northern Looking Glass, it lampooned the fashions and politics of the times.[9][10][11] It had most of the elements that make up the modern comic, including pictures with captions that display a continuous narrative told often in installments, and the use of speech bubbles, satire and caricature.[12]
In 1845, the
1865 saw the publication of Max and Moritz by Wilhelm Busch by a German newspaper. Busch refined the conventions of sequential art, and his work was a key influence within the form, Rudolph Dirks was inspired by the strip to create The Katzenjammer Kids in 1897.[20]
First serialized comics for a mass audience
The first weekly comic to feature a regular character was
In the United States, R. F. Outcault's work in combining speech balloons and images on Hogan's Alley and The Yellow Kid (appearing in 1895) has been credited as establishing the form and conventions of the comic strip,[25] though academics have uncovered earlier works that combine speech bubbles and a multi image narrative. However, the popularity of Outcalt's work and the position of the strip in a newspaper retains credit as a driving force of the form.[26][27]
20th-century mass medium
The 1920s and 1930s saw further booms within the industry. The market for
A market for such
In Japan, a country with a long tradition of illustration, comics were hugely popular. Referred to as
During the latter half of the 20th century comics became a very popular item for collectors and from the 1970s American comics publishers have actively encouraged collecting and shifted a large portion of comics publishing and production to appeal directly to the collector's community.
The modern double use of the term comic, as an adjective describing a genre, and a noun designating an entire medium, has been criticised as confusing and misleading. In the 1960s and 1970s, underground cartoonists used the spelling comix to distinguish their work from mainstream newspaper strips and juvenile comic books. Their work was written for an adult audience but was usually comedic, so the "comic" label was still appropriate. The term graphic novel was popularized in the late 1970s, having been coined at least two decades previous, to distance the material from this confusion.[29]
In the 1980s, comics scholarship started to blossom in the U.S.,
See also
- Comics historiography
- History of American comics
- History of animation
- History of anime
- History of Franco-Belgian comics
- History of manga
- List of years in comics
References
- ^ Fan Pen Chen (2003), Shadow Theaters of the World, Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 62, No. 1 (2003), pp. 25-64
- JSTOR 1177504.
- ^ Perry & Aldridge 1989, p. 11; McCloud 1993, pp. 11–14; Sabin 1993, pp. 13–14.
- ^ "Frans Hogenberg". lambiek.net. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
- ^ Scotin, Gérard. "Marriage à la Mode". Savannah College of Art and Design. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved Feb 4, 2013.
- ^ Baron, Bernard. "Marriage à la Mode Plate 2 (Early in the Morning)". Savannah College of Art and Design. Archived from the original on December 26, 2013. Retrieved Feb 4, 2013.
- ISBN 9780826429360.
- ^ Smolderen 2006.
- ISBN 9781134879946.
- ISBN 9780674067271.
- ^ "Have I got old news for you: Glasgow is home to world's oldest comic". Retrieved 2012-12-17.
- ^ "Did you know that the first ever comic book was created in Glasgow?". Archived from the original on 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
- ^ "Rodolphe Töpffer". lambiek.net. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
- ^ Beerbohm 2003.
- ^ Translated by Weiss, E. in Enter: The Comics, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, pp.4. (1969)
- ^ Original French, extract. ASIN 2841620751.
- ^ "Original French, extract". Lekti-ecriture.com. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
- ^ Varnum & Gibbons, 2001. pp.77-78
- ^ Gordon, Ian (2002). "Comics". St James Encyclopedia of pop culture (2002). Retrieved May 30, 2005.
- ^ "comic strip". The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001. Archived from the original on July 28, 2005. Retrieved June 22, 2005.
- ISBN 9781134557998.
- ISBN 9781134149070.
- ISBN 9781404202825.
- ^ Sabin 1993, pp. 17–21.
- ^ Sabin 1993, pp. 133–134.
- ^ Marschall, Richard (February, 1989). "Oh You Kid". The Comics Journal 127, p. 72-7
- ISBN 978-0-8109-4970-6
- ^ "A History of the Comic Book". Random History. March 18, 2008. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
- ^ Var. (2003-4) "The history of the term 'graphic novel' ..." Archived from the original on 2008-03-23. Retrieved June 26, 2005.
- ^ Taylor, Laurie; Martin, Cathlena; & Houp, Trena (2004) "Introduction". ImageTexT Exhibit 1 (Fall 2004). Retrieved June 26, 2005.
- ^ Atchison, Lee (2008-01-07). "A Brief History of Webcomics – The Third Age of Webcomics, Part One". Sequential Tart.
Works cited
- Beerbohm, Robert (2003). "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck Part III". The Search For Töpffer In America. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
- McCloud, Scott (1993). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Kitchen Sink Press. ISBN 0-87816-243-7.
- Perry, George; Aldridge, Alan (1989). The Penguin Book Of Comics (Revised ed.). Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-002802-1.
- Sabin, Roger (1993). Adult Comics: An Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04419-7.
- Smolderen, Thierry (Summer 2006). "Of Labels, Loops, and Bubbles: Solving the Historical Puzzle of the Speech Balloon". Comic Art (8): 90–112.