History of comics

If the comic regarded as a work that you can assign to the Sequential visual arts, the beginnings of its development up to the Stone Age can be traced.

As the actual birth of the modern comics publishing Hogan 's Alley (later Yellow Kid) by Richard F. Outcault in Pulitzer's New York World apply from July 1895.

Prehistoric times

Already in the past, more than 30,000 years ago, man painted animals of his world on rock walls ( people do not are rare, landscapes) and at that time had been the ability to based on outlines and implied lines and the resulting abstract strokes underlying content can be seen; - Constitute a recognizable face one of the significant aspects of the comic, in which two points at the same height, including a horizontal line and all enclosed by a circle for everyone. In the cave of Chauvet in the Ardèche in France it was the first drawing of an animal ( rhino ), whose body outline was provided with multiple borders and bringing the first representation of a moving animal succeeded.

As a first illustration of a run -time is commonly painting in the Lascaux caves. Characters by which different images could be brought to a sense - and -time context, emerged in the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia. To 2,600 BC, a seal was created for the Cemetery of Ur, whose picture shows the Queen and a signature contained, who testified: Queen Pua -bi.

Especially used in Egypt to a combination of hieroglyphs and images to describe the daily life of this culture. Here also the images of a symbolism were subjected to hardly differed from each other. Always the same perspective was preserved, all shown from the side. The image of people came to pass after a specified schema. From Egypt the idea of the image sequence to Greece, where they found particular use in the vase painting arrived. For the first time the figures were also texts painted on the head that came virtually out of the mouth. The same is found in Syria in the 6th century AD by the Aztecs or two centuries later.

The Roman culture took this art, and brought them forth: 113 AD prompted the ruler Trajan a description of a campaign by a stone pillar. This column was 33 m high, the stone relief 200 m long and comprises 155 individual scenes, which were separated by stylistic devices such as trees from each other ( an anticipation of the picture stays).

Middle Ages

With the advent of the monastery in the early Middle Ages, they became keepers of knowledge. Its inhabitants authored books that also contained pictures soon. Often churches, wall or stained glass decorated with frescoes, religious motifs contained and often also described various scenes of a story and thus virtually forming sequences. Used from 1000 AD churches repeatedly tapestries to describe events and put it also (Latin ) intermediate texts. The most famous is the Bayeux Tapestry, which is about the Battle of Hastings.

Precursors of speech (eg in Gospels of Henry the Lion ) - In the 12th century, illustrations, image, in which the persons depicted were presented with spoken texts in the form of banners appeared. In the 13th century the illustrated Bible of the poor was increasing prevalence with which the church wanted to reach the read - and Latin - ignorant believers.

Increasingly, the demand for writers who were no longer only in monasteries. Courtly literature emerged, the paper found its way to Europe in the 15th century, the woodcut was invented. After that first block books, images and texts emerged united.

In Japan in the 16th century created a tradition of Japanese woodcuts, which were modeled a series of grotesque drawings by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai in the 19th century, similar to the grotesque da Vinci. Hokusai Manga called them. This name can still find use for comics in Japanese style.

Introduction of printing

The introduction of the printing press and the professional sales by Johannes Gutenberg images and texts were first separated again, later succeeded in broadsheet, which is regarded as a predecessor of the images arc. So finally the thematic restriction on court and biblical stories has been lifted, the narrative story prevailed. Since the majority of the population still consisted of illiterate, the plot was still transported by means of images. Also written books contained up to 100 woodcuts, which retold the story, but could reach few readers. Only in the middle of the 18th century consisted of compulsory education in the German-speaking.

The genre of the picture cycle allowed artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger to drive for the first time images that represented an act. The best known and most influential was the Briton William Hogarth ( 1697-1764 ), who treated topics of modern life, such as poverty and prostitution, of which there was even a work of interpretation, that of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg known for his aphorisms written. Rodolphe Töpffer used since 1827 for the first time one and the same person in his broadsheets Les Amours de Monsieur Vieux- Bois with over 200 pictures and let each act as a result of the happened before. He provided also with a few lines of text Each image. At the same time he used the first style means to visualize movement or music. This principle influenced many artist throughout Europe.

Cartoon

At this time the cartoon was already widespread. Even Leonardo da Vinci applied the method to achieve a satiric effect by means of optical grotesque distortion of the people. The term itself dates from the 17th century ( overweight =) by the Italian caricare. Thomas Rowlandson recorded from 1800 story with dialogues on the head of the parties and was soon able to sell books, which appeared sequels and translations abroad due to the great success of his series of Doctor Syntax. 1830, the first French newspaper was founded with a satirical focus, mainly in the cartoons were distributed: La Caricature. In the successor magazine Charivari published artists such as Grandville and Gustave Doré. In England, the magazine appeared Punch and invented the term cartoon for his pictures. German magazines were flying leaves, The True Jacob and especially Kladderadatsch and Simplicissimus, later about Wilhelm Busch influenced, the Max and Moritz were the inspiration for The Katzenjammer Kids. In the American magazine Truth Richard Felton Outcault drew for the first time the character who would later become The Yellow Kid.