As we struggle within the cognitive tug of war of our new media landscape, comics offer a useful model for a new type of reading: one that might help resolve the tensions of the current media age to move us toward new productive modes of expression and understanding.
Telling stories in the form of pictures can be traced back over 40 000 years ago in Asia and Europe. Since that, monks have illustrated old scriptures in Northern Britain, Egyptians have carved hieroglyphs into walls, medieval artists have painted battles on tapestries, ancient Romans have created statues throughout the ages. Recently though, at the beginning of the last century, one form of this has become well known in popular culture - comic books.
Les amours de M. Vieux Bois - The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck - has often been credited as the first comic book, created by Swiss caricaturist Rodolphe Töpffer in the early 19th century. As new, modern comic books have been created, they have inspired generations to be like their heroes. They became popular before and during the war, and now many have been created into movies, television shows and books.
Comics have come a long way, inspiring and changing how we share stories and morals through characters, both alike and unlike ourselves.
Les amours de M. Vieux Bois - The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck - has often been credited as the first comic book, created by Swiss caricaturist Rodolphe Töpffer in the early 19th century. As new, modern comic books have been created, they have inspired generations to be like their heroes. They became popular before and during the war, and now many have been created into movies, television shows and books.
Comics have come a long way, inspiring and changing how we share stories and morals through characters, both alike and unlike ourselves.