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The Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon takes us well into the 20th century with 2,085 “drawings, prints, and paintings related to the art of caricature, cartoon, and illustration, spanning the years 1780 to 1977” and encompassing magazine illustrations like Russell Patterson’s “Where there’s smoke there’s fire” ...
Oct 8, 2023 · The history of American comics is a tale of evolution, innovation, and cultural impact. It began in the 19th century within mass print media, a time when sensationalist journalism thrived, and newspapers sought to provide entertainment for a growing readership. As we delve into this captivating journey, we'll explore the pivotal moments, iconic ...
1938-1956. The Golden Age of Comic Books began in June 1938 with the debut of Superman in Action Comics #1. Batman premiered less than a year later in Detective Comics #27. In October 1939, Marvel Comics’ predecessor, Timely Publications, released Marvel Comics #1 which included the Human Torch, Angel, and Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner.
Jul 22, 2020 · 2013. 1877. Cartoons are used to comment and report on the Civil War. Cartoonists are particularly drawn to using Abraham Lincoln as their subject. 1900. Newspaper cartoonists J. Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay begin making animated short films by filming a series of drawings and projecting them. The Enchanted Drawing is released by Blackton.
- Overview
- A definition of terms
- The origins of the comic strip
comic strip, series of adjacent drawn images, usually arranged horizontally, that are designed to be read as a narrative or a chronological sequence. The story is usually original in this form. Words may be introduced within or near each image, or they may be dispensed with altogether. If words functionally dominate the image, it then becomes merel...
A comic book is a bound collection of strips, each of which typically tells a single story or a gag (joke) in a few panels or else a segment of a continuous story. Most of the more popular newspaper comic strips eventually are collected over a varying period of time and published in book form.
Only in the English language is the word comic used in connection with these strips. Although now firmly established, it is misleading, for the early (pre-19th-century) strip was seldom comic either in form or in content, and many contemporary strips are in no sense primarily humorous. The terms comics and comic strip became established about 1900 in the United States, when all strips were indeed comic. The French term is bande dessinée (i.e., “drawn strip,” or BD for short). The older German term is Bildergeschichte (“picture story”) or Bilderstreifen (“picture strip”), but the Germans now tend to employ the English word, as do speakers of many other languages. The Italian term for this art form is fumetto (literally, “little puff of smoke,” after the balloon within which most modern strips enclose verbal dialogue). In Spanish both the comic strip and book are called historieta.
The comic strip, defined as a mass medium, cannot reasonably be said to have existed before the invention of printing. In the early period there were two principal forms: a series of small images printed on a single piece of paper (narrative strip proper) and a series composed of several sheets of paper, with one image per page, which when displayed on the wall of a house formed a narrative frieze or picture story.
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From the outset two basic groups of themes emerged: political morality and private morality. Surviving pre-1550 strips, most of which are German woodcuts, deal with such subjects as the lives of saints (subdivided in the manner of late medieval painted altarpieces, which were a decisive factor on the compartmentalized layout of broadsheets), accounts of contemporary miracles, mockery of worldly love, and politically inspired accusations against the Jews.
The Reformation and the ensuing wars of religion through the 17th century, particularly in Protestant Germany and the Netherlands, gave rise to many propagandistic and patriotic strips based on contemporary political events. In the course of the 17th century, the narrative strip, hitherto an ill-defined and irregular phenomenon, became stabilized and typically took the form of an allegorical graphic centrepiece surrounded by narrative border strips. Although often crude in style, these strips managed to render accounts of political intrigue and moving descriptions of military terror; the best known in the latter category is the exquisitely executed and carefully cadenced narrative of the Thirty Years’ War by Jacques Callot. Little known, but as powerful in their way, are Romeyn de Hooghe’s indictments of Huguenot persecution under Louis XIV. Romeyn, the first named artist to devote himself consistently to the narrative strip, also left colourful, forceful, and elaborate graphic accounts of the accession of William III to power in the Netherlands and England. English engravers, inspired by the Dutch example and led by Francis Barlow, retailed the complex political events of the period (e.g., the Popish Plot of 1678) in the form of playing cards, which were often sold in uncut broadsheets.
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The following pages contain editorial cartoons within Periods of US History, as quantified by the AP US History curriculum. Period 1: 1491-1607. Period 2: 1607-1754. Period 3: 1754-1800. Period 4: 1800-1848. Period 5: 1844-1877. Period 6: 1865 - 1898.
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Jul 23, 2021 · Possibly the most famous political cartoon in American history first made its appearance in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754, where it accompanied an editorial by Benjamin Franklin. The cartoon showed a simple drawing of a snake divided into eight parts, each one labeled with the initials of one of the colonies or regions that made up ...
