A Brief History Of The Graphic Narrative

Graphic narratives are defined as a form of storytelling primarily made up of a series of drawings or images and words. This could encompass anything from a comic book or strip, to a full-length graphic novel, such as Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

Originally seen as a genre for children and teenagers, graphic narratives have grown in sophistication and popularity in recent decades, and many tackle serious issues. For example, the Iranian writer and illustrator Marjane Satrapi depicted her childhood during the Islamic Revolution in her memoir Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003).

In 1986, Art Spiegelman published Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, based on the experiences of his parents during the World War II Holocaust. It is haunting and brutally honest, conveying human relationships alongside sweeping historical atrocities. The work was widely acclaimed, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

But how did this innovative artform begin? Graphic narratives could be said to originate with the earliest cave paintings at Lascaux, or the hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt. Both are ways of visually communicating ideas.

For hundreds of years, only a small proportion of the population could read, so drawings and cartoons were a good way of conveying information. Pictures were also created with woodcuts and embroidery. For example, The Bayeux Tapestry, dating from the Middle Ages, records the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Some people consider the 18^th century printmaker and satirist William Hogarth as the original graphic artist. He created engravings and woodcuts, such as The Rake’s Progress (1735).  The series of eight plates depicts the story of a wealthy but feckless young man who descends into debt, providing a social commentary on the era.

The improvement of the printing press in the mid-nineteenth century allowed for the mass distribution of newspapers and magazines, and with it, the birth of what we refer to today as the comic strip. 

The earliest published comic strip is generally agreed to be The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck by the Swiss artist Rudolphe Topffer. It concerned the romantic mishaps of a young man, and was first published in Europe in 1837.  It was translated into English and published in the U.S.A in 1842, in a weekly magazine called Brother Jonathan. 

Originally used by magazines and newspapers as a marketing tool to increase sales, comic strip characters soon began to acquire a commercial value in their own right. By the golden age of the 1930s and 40s, dozens of action heroes flourished in popular culture, such as Superman, Captain America, and Batman.

In Britain, two long standing classic comics were launched in 1937 and ‘38 respectively: The Dandy and The Beano.  In contrast with their American counterparts, these comics feature child characters who are generally troublemakers or misfits. The closest versions of the ‘superhero’ are The Dandy’s rather tongue-in-cheek Bananaman and Desperate Dan.

By the 1970s, the graphic narrative was moving away from its image as childish newspaper fodder, and was being taken seriously as an artform. This led to the more complex and ambitious works which are celebrated in our current era.

If you are looking for printing a comic book, please get in touch today.