Early comic anthology.

February 22, 2003 12:39 AM

An anthology of early comics from the 9^th century till the early 20^th. Includes early examples of speechballons in sequential images, ranging from the 13^th century to the 19^th. Andy Konkykru's "Dachshund Homepage" is filled with such gems.
posted by riffola (13 comments total)

Great post! I stumbled onto this a few months ago and have still barely begun to explore it. But it's overflowing with amazing and bizarre comics.

I can totally see Chester Brown doing Jesus Courted by the Christian Soul. And I loved the world's first graphic novel.
posted by mediareport at 1:26 AM on February 22, 2003

It's fascinating to see the styles of illustration and hand-lettering change over time on the speech balloons page from as ornate as illuminated manuscripts to as minimal as a modern day Sunday strip.

This is now my favorite MetaFilter post of all time. Thank you.
posted by iconomy at 5:34 AM on February 22, 2003

I think the site's provided an excellent timeline on the influence
of sequential art on popular culture; to say that "comics"
(in the contemporary sense) actually preceeded the chapbooks
of the 18th century is a bit of a stretch.

The various medieval and renaissance works in Dachshund's anthology are frescoes, owing more to the petroglyphs, cuniforms, and classical age than they do to newspaper strips and newsstand pulps. The "speech baloons" referred to in the examples from 1250/1300 and 1493 are illuminated texts, inspired by heraldic banners, almagests and pictoglyphs from the Classical Era.

For a little more insight on the visual medium, try this page.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:14 AM on February 22, 2003

"My dear Noel, I don't know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits..."

I don't know why this amuses me so much, but it does. Great link, Riffola - the rest of this site bears exploring.
posted by wanderingmind at 9:16 AM on February 22, 2003

Wow... amazing site. "The True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish Plot" sounds like a Monty Python skit, and looks like one too! I loved the Chat Noir illustrations, but can anybody tell me what's going on in the tourists/pyramids strip on the T. Steinlen page?
posted by taz at 9:37 AM on February 22, 2003

ps: +++
posted by taz at 9:37 AM on February 22, 2003

This has been sitting in my queue for awhile waiting for the guy to update it, but until then if you're interested check out The Rules of Attraction: The Rise and Fall of the Early Newspaper Strip.
posted by Stan Chin at 10:05 AM on February 22, 2003

[this is sheer bliss]

I am never going to go offline again. The early twentieth century links are outstanding, and the history is excellent. In addition, I really like the layout of the site. It is, in my opinion, well designed.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:34 PM on February 22, 2003

but..but..but....this will take weeks to explore!
posted by gravelshoes at 3:23 PM on February 22, 2003

Weeks and weeks and weeks.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:59 PM on February 22, 2003

riffola, this is a fabulous post - thanks! Where is Matt's rating system when I need it - cuz [this is good].

...and what gravelshoes said.
posted by madamjujujive at 5:23 PM on February 23, 2003

riffola, what everybody else said. This is a great find, one to be enjoyed over (quite some) time at leisure. Thanks!

In case the rating system works retroactively, well, [this is good]!
posted by soyjoy at 8:49 AM on February 24, 2003

Thank you everyone. I am just a little surprised that it got this sort of a response. It feels good to finally make a decent MeFi post.
posted by riffola at 2:58 PM on February 24, 2003