Out with Outcault!
It’s been a while since I wrote about comics, even
though I seem to be immersed in them all the time. It
really says a lot about how the things you are most
involved in escape the usual banter unlike things
that trigger nostalgia.
I had been thinking about how bookstores are suddenly stocked with a lot more manga comic books, graphic novels and uncategorizable illustrated books than the regular comics that make it to the newspapers. It seems like we are suddenly willing to read comics from right to left, back to front, bottom to top, and in any which way possible. This is all very thrilling to me, except sometimes I am intimidated by the sheer innovativeness of the medium. I feel especially behind times when I see kids squatting on the floor perusing them with such enthusiastic familiarity. It is almost embarrassing, more so than not being able to keep up with the current economic crisis.
Still, I can’t help but wonder why when it comes to discussing the development of comics, we are so unbending in the way we define the medium.
Take the history of comics for instance. Even though comics are a fairly new art form, there is so much uncertainty on when it began, and certainly a lot of disagreement on who should be considered the pioneer. This is not surprising given that as you trace back its origins, the distinguishing line between traditional art and caricature is almost nonexistent. In books about the history of comics, writers either relate its beginnings to the age of hieroglyphs, the primitive writing systems of ancient egypt where symbols denoted objects and concepts or skip many years of significant development of the medium and credit Outcault for pioneering the modern comic strip with The Yellow Kid.
In the centuries between the Hieroglyphs and The Yellow Kid, there is so much illustrative art that was developed that simply did not get the deserved attention for the strangest reasons.
Take Rudolphe Töpffer’s work for instance. Almost 70 years before Outcault’s The Yellow Kid, in 1827, Rudolphe Töpffer created the first comic strip in Switzerland. In a span of 10 years he authored seven graphic novels and went on to publish the world’s first comic book called “Histoire de M. Vieux Bois”. The comic book was later published in several languages around the world and even made it to a New York paper, Brother Jonathan in 1842. It was retitled "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck".
The 40 page comic book had 6-10 panels with
illustrations and text in captions on each page and
told a story about Mr. Oldbuck, who was in love with
a rather large woman. The book illustrates instance
after instance of Oldbuck trying to win over his
“ladye-love” only to be rejected. He finally attempts
suicide.
Sounds unhappy, but it was humorous, very imaginative, told in picture format and seems to fit all the criteria that would qualify it as a comic strip. But, Outcault wins on minor technicalities. The Yellow Kid is the first comic to use text balloons. This they felt was particularly significant given that it is the essence of the comic format as we know it and makes the text an integral but “accompanying” part of the strip. Neither the text nor the picture alone can drive the narrative forward, whereas in Mr. Oldbuck, the pictures carried relatively little of the narrative load. The story can be understood by reading the captions alone, and the pictures only worked to add to the humor. Moreover, The Yellow Kid has continuing characters that appeared in strip after strip throughout its existence. Whereas Mr. Oldbuck appears only in this 40-page story.
Still all this in the context of today, where we have many non-series comic books, seems to me like we need to expand our definition of comics and give Töpffer the honor it deserves.
Moreover Brother Jonathan, (in which “The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck” was published decades before The Yellow Kid) is a character who predates Uncle Sam as the epitome of America. So if it is comic enough for Brother Jonathan should it not be comic enough for the rest of the Americans and the world?
I had been thinking about how bookstores are suddenly stocked with a lot more manga comic books, graphic novels and uncategorizable illustrated books than the regular comics that make it to the newspapers. It seems like we are suddenly willing to read comics from right to left, back to front, bottom to top, and in any which way possible. This is all very thrilling to me, except sometimes I am intimidated by the sheer innovativeness of the medium. I feel especially behind times when I see kids squatting on the floor perusing them with such enthusiastic familiarity. It is almost embarrassing, more so than not being able to keep up with the current economic crisis.
Still, I can’t help but wonder why when it comes to discussing the development of comics, we are so unbending in the way we define the medium.
Take the history of comics for instance. Even though comics are a fairly new art form, there is so much uncertainty on when it began, and certainly a lot of disagreement on who should be considered the pioneer. This is not surprising given that as you trace back its origins, the distinguishing line between traditional art and caricature is almost nonexistent. In books about the history of comics, writers either relate its beginnings to the age of hieroglyphs, the primitive writing systems of ancient egypt where symbols denoted objects and concepts or skip many years of significant development of the medium and credit Outcault for pioneering the modern comic strip with The Yellow Kid.
In the centuries between the Hieroglyphs and The Yellow Kid, there is so much illustrative art that was developed that simply did not get the deserved attention for the strangest reasons.
Take Rudolphe Töpffer’s work for instance. Almost 70 years before Outcault’s The Yellow Kid, in 1827, Rudolphe Töpffer created the first comic strip in Switzerland. In a span of 10 years he authored seven graphic novels and went on to publish the world’s first comic book called “Histoire de M. Vieux Bois”. The comic book was later published in several languages around the world and even made it to a New York paper, Brother Jonathan in 1842. It was retitled "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck".
Sounds unhappy, but it was humorous, very imaginative, told in picture format and seems to fit all the criteria that would qualify it as a comic strip. But, Outcault wins on minor technicalities. The Yellow Kid is the first comic to use text balloons. This they felt was particularly significant given that it is the essence of the comic format as we know it and makes the text an integral but “accompanying” part of the strip. Neither the text nor the picture alone can drive the narrative forward, whereas in Mr. Oldbuck, the pictures carried relatively little of the narrative load. The story can be understood by reading the captions alone, and the pictures only worked to add to the humor. Moreover, The Yellow Kid has continuing characters that appeared in strip after strip throughout its existence. Whereas Mr. Oldbuck appears only in this 40-page story.
Still all this in the context of today, where we have many non-series comic books, seems to me like we need to expand our definition of comics and give Töpffer the honor it deserves.
Moreover Brother Jonathan, (in which “The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck” was published decades before The Yellow Kid) is a character who predates Uncle Sam as the epitome of America. So if it is comic enough for Brother Jonathan should it not be comic enough for the rest of the Americans and the world?
