The Pioneers
The Pioneers |
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Page 11 of 35  Cartoon from the satirical monthly Punch (R Bryant, 1879). Art/script: John Tenniel. Here, a grim-faced Prime Minister Disraeli ponders his foreign policy problems. By the late nineteenth century, picture magazines such as these were enormously popular among all social classes. These cartoon magazines were very nearly comics as we know them - and indeed, some historians have chosen to classify them as such. The practice of privileging pictures over text, the addition of more strips and the emphasis on slapstick were all steps on the road to becoming comics. However, there was still something missing. For in order for a title to merit being called the first of this new kind of publication, there had to be an extra element: a central continuing character. So we come at last to the first comic agreed to be worthy of the name: the curiously titled Ally Sloper's Half Holiday (Gilbert Dalziel, 1884). This was a cheap (one penny), black-and-white tabloid weekly that mixed strips, cartoons and prose stories, and which boasted a regular starring character: the eponymous Alexander Sloper. Although very few people have heard of the title today, it is undoubtedly one of the most important comics in the history of the medium, not just because it was first, but because it set standards in so many areas, both commercial and artistic. |