Image Essay #10

Comics are seen as a low art, having established as a form in the late 19th and early 20th century. Whilst preceding works have are seen as sharing certain techniques, most notably the conveying of a narrative through imagery, most commentators are agreed that the form was established in the the humorous cartoons and comic strips found in newspapers and magazines of the late 19th and early 20th century, and was fuelled by the boom in publishing technology. Early precursors include Trajan's Column and the Bayeaux Tapestry, as well as works by William Hogarth, Rodolphe Töpffer, Wilhelm Busch and George Cruikshank. Discussion of the form is even more recent, especially in the United States; although early criticism can be traced back to the 1920s, it is only in the latter half of the 20th century that serious examination of the form was begun. Definitions of the form are rather loose in their approach; some claim its printed format is crucial, some emphasize the interdependence of image and text, and others the sequential nature of the images.