The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825

David Kunzle's landmark study examines the origins and development of sequential narrative art in European broadsheets over nearly four centuries. The work documents and analyzes hundreds of picture stories published between 1450-1825, establishing foundations for understanding modern comic art forms. The research traces how social, technological and cultural forces shaped these early visual narratives across different European regions and time periods. Kunzle presents detailed examples from broadsheets addressing topics like morality tales, current events, political satire, and social commentary. The book includes over 90 reproductions and translations of original broadsheet materials, providing direct evidence of how these works appeared and circulated. The documentation covers printing techniques, distribution methods, censorship challenges, and the relationship between images and text. This comprehensive volume reveals how early picture stories reflected and influenced the values, anxieties and power structures of pre-modern European society. The findings demonstrate that sequential art has served as a vital form of mass communication and cultural expression since the advent of printing.

Academic readers appreciate this book as a detailed reference work on early comic strip history, though note it can be dense and scholarly. The extensive documentation, illustrations, and analysis of broadsheets helps researchers studying the origins of sequential art. Readers liked: - Comprehensive research and documentation - High quality reproductions of rare historical materials - Analysis connecting comic art to social/political contexts Readers disliked: - Dense academic writing style - High price point ($195+ for hardcover) - Limited availability in libraries Available ratings are minimal due to the book's specialized academic nature: Goodreads: 4.5/5 (4 ratings) WorldCat: No user ratings Google Books: No user ratings Notable reader comment from an academic review: "Kunzle's exhaustive research provides the foundation for understanding how sequential art emerged from early modern print culture" - Comics Studies scholar on academia.edu

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🔹 David Kunzle spent over a decade researching this groundbreaking work, visiting more than 200 libraries across Europe and examining thousands of broadsheets to trace the evolution of sequential art. 🔹 The book demonstrates that comic strips existed nearly 400 years before the commonly accepted birth of the medium in the late 19th century with works like The Yellow Kid. 🔹 Many early comic strips were used as propaganda tools during the Protestant Reformation, with both Catholic and Protestant sides using sequential art to mock and criticize each other. 🔹 The broadsheets featured in the book often depicted moral tales, criminal biographies, and political satire, serving as both entertainment and news media for largely illiterate populations. 🔹 This volume is the first of Kunzle's comprehensive four-part "History of the Comic Strip" series, which collectively represents one of the most extensive scholarly works ever produced on comic art history.