Comic books never did much for me but there is no doubt that they are among the most influential kinds of literature and have been for decades. But did you know they go all the way back cave art? Me either.
Leave it to biochemist Fazale Rana to lay this out in a fascinating post on Reasons to Believe, the apologetics web site founded by astronomer Hugh Ross. Rana describes the history of comics:
“In America, comics burst onto the scene in the 1930s, but the oldest comics (at least in Europe) trace their genesis to Rodolphe Töpffer (1799-1846). Considered by many to be “the father of comics,” Töpffer was a Swiss teacher, artist, and author who became well-known for his illustrated books—works that bore similarity to modern-day comics.
“Despite his renown, Töpffer wasn’t the first comic book writer and artist. That claim to fame belongs to long forgotten artists from prehistory. In fact, recent work by Australian and Indonesian researchers indicates that comics as a storytelling device dates to earlier than 44,000 years ago. Seriously!”
Go here for the rest of the story, which I guarantee you will find fascinating.
Sequential art in the modern world was invented by Benjamin Franklin.
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