-
The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck
Widely considered to be the first comic book ever created, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck featured sequences of art and accompanying text, depicting the humorous missteps of a man after a lady. -
The First Comic Character
Created in 1895, Yellow Kid became the first recognizable comic book character for merchandised trade paperbacks. Though the comic was originally published in newspapers (which served as a boon for newspapers), the series was reprinted into collections two years later, which led to the first financial success of a comic collection. -
Comic Strip Compilations Begin
From 1915 into the 1930s, more serial comic strips followed Yellow Kid’s example. Popular newspaper comics, such as Little Orphan Annie, published in 1924, saw paperback collections, proving there was a market for comic collections. -
The First Comic Books
In 1933, the Funnies (later called the New Funnies) series began. Due to the humorous and cartoonish nature of the publications, the New Funnies was the first series to actually be referred to as ‘comic books.’ -
Action Comics #1
In 1938, the landscape of comics changed forever with the release of Action Comics #1, featuring a brand new character in a completely new role: Superman. From this point forward, comics were less about humor and more fantasy and superhero focused, and sales increased again. -
The First Picture Novel
Comics were especially popular with soldiers and veterans in the post-war era, and 1950’s It Rhymes With Lust, a noir thriller, was a big hit. A character-driven, adult-oriented story, the comic was arguably the first graphic novel, though the term had not been coined yet. Instead, the cover of the publication stated that it was a ‘picture novel.’ -
The Rise of Heroes
Due to the success of Superman in the Action Comics series, artists and writers turned to superheroes as their leading characters for comics. The transition from simply having humorous material to character-driven stories of saving those in need with superpowers was complete. -
The Serious Side of Comics
With the nationalist post-war era gone and the Vietnam War in full swing, artists and writers were looking for new ways to express themselves and question the war. Due to the War's vast unpopularity with young people, comics seemed an appropriate medium. The late sixties marked the first time that comic books tackled real-world issues. -
The First Unofficial Graphic Novel
Released in 1971, Blackmark was the first story-driven comic to be published in a traditional book format with an original character for this particular medium. Called the first graphic novel retroactively, Blackmark featured an encapsulated story using traditional comic-style art and text balloons. -
Putting the "Book" in Comic Book
Also retroactively called a graphic novel, the 1978 Silver Surfer collection by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby was the first comic series to be published by a traditional book publisher and sold in book stores rather than comic shops. On the original book jacket, the publication was described as a ‘novel-in-pictures.’ -
The Modern Graphic Novel
The mid-1980s forever changed the landscape of comics for the modern era. In 1986, Frank Miller created The Dark Knight Returns, a gritty tale of an aging Batman returning to fight crime. Along with Watchmen, both publications were unique in that they were the first to actually call themselves ‘graphic novels,' they were specifically created as limited stories for the medium, and featured poltically charged, adult-only content. Watchmen is regarded by many as the best graphic novel of all time. -
Today's Graphic Novels
The market for the graphic novel has surpassed the market for traditional trade paperbacks in the marketing world of comics. Because of their financial success, their visual nature, and their encapsulated stories, graphic novels have become the basis of popular movies and television shows, including 300, V for Vendetta, The Walking Dead, and Road to Perdition.
