Chronology And Development Of The Early Comic Industry

The history of comic goes back to 1400 where we have German woodcuts made for religious and political purposes. Around 1682, the British artist Francis Barlow made various comic strips, which at the time were in the form of a flag or a scroll in his propaganda, one of them was called “the Horrid hellish popish plot”. In England, the artist William Hogarth in 1732 made a satire about the vices of the society of the time in forms of comic strips in “The Prostitute’s Career”.

In 1895 the first comic to appear in newspapers is born, by R. C. Outcalt, an American cartoonist who created comic strips talking about the events happening in the neighborhood, the protagonist of his story was called “Yellow kid”, due to his clothes. Most of the comics of that epoch were shown in the “Sunday Pages”, additional pages in color in the Sunday newspaper.

Another American comic that is still famous to these days is Calvin and Hobbes. Created by Bill Watterson, the comic tells the story of a child named Calvin and his stuffed toy “Hobbes”, who comes alive in the eyes of Calvin. It also became popular in the Sunday pages between 1895 and 1995.

Jumping to 1920 we can see the birth of many famous characters and comics. In 1924 “Little orphan Annie” was born, by the American cartoonist Gray Harold, the comic was published on the Chicago tribune. The story similar in characters to Calvin and Hobbes, tells the vicissitudes of a young girl called Annie, an orphan who together with her dog “Sandy” will be faced by various problems.

1919 Elzie Segar publishes “The thimble Theater” in the New York newspaper starring the characters Olive Oyl and Harold Hamgravy. In 1929 the character “Popeye” is added to the comic and will become the main protagonist. Popeye relies on the beneficial properties of spinach, feeding on it for every need, in front of enemies who embody the 'bad guys'. One of these, is Brutus, an imposing sailor with a thick, black beard.

In 1930 a new genre is born, adventure. Mickey mouse makes his appearance in comic strips, published also on the newspaper. in conjunction with Mickey, Minnie is brought to life. In the first comic we see Mickey trying to build his own airplane. The character already so popular thanks to short animation and appearances in various commercials will be shown in around 40 newspapers.

Superman was created in 1938 by DC comics appearing in a comic book and not anymore in the newspaper, it became so popular it created the “superhero” genre. DC which is an abbreviation of “Detective Comics” and was created by Wheeler-Nicholson and his two partners Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz.

The year after Marvel comics appears in the industry, created by Martin Goodman. The first comic book was called “Marvel Comics no. 1”, various superhero appeared in it such as the human torch and the Sub-Mariner. Capitan American will appear in 1941 showing this character fighting against Germans. Other comics created around the same time are Tarzan, Betty Boop, Buck Rodgers and Dick Tracy.

In 1950 “Peanuts” was created by Charles Monroe Schulz, young are the protagonists of this world where children, dogs and birds take life.

In 1959 In France, Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo creates “Asterix”, a comic set in 50 B.C. during the roman empire where one last small village, lost in the north of France, in Armorica, tirelessly but very easily, continues to resist the invading people. The comic makes its first appearance in the French comic magazine “Pilote”.

In the 60’s the genre “Underground” is born with comics such as “Fritz the cat” (Robert Crumb, 1965) and “The fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” (Gilbert Shelton, 1971).

In Italy, in 1982 Martin Mystere is created by Emilio Saturnini. Every comic tells the story of a young man called “Martin”, he is divided between an adventurous life where he will go discovering the mysteries of the universe, and a normal life with a girlfriend and his small house museum.

In 1986 Dylan Dog is created by Tiziano Sclavi, published by Sergio Bonelli. The story revolves around a paranormal investigator and his encounters with monsters and what’s beyond reality.

In 1991 we have the comic “Sin city” created by Frank Miller which will later become a movie by Quentin Tarantino in 2005. The protagonist of the first adventure is Marv, a huge, violent man. Most of Sin City's stories have been published as episodic miniseries subsequently collected in volume. However, there are various short stories dedicated to the saga created by Frank Miller that end in the turn of a few pages.

After 2000, the most interesting developments in comics came with the spread of Internet. In fact, it is precisely the telematic network that offers comics. It gave to those who create comics new possibilities of diffusion and experimentation. In fact, it is possible to find comics for free on the network to download, blogs where you talk about them and even various comics made specifically to be published and sold on the internet.