Comic books are a form that many people have many opinions about. Much of comics storytelling come from newspaper comic strips. The idea of panels, text boxes inside the panels, and actions being mimicked with action lines all come from newspaper comics. Some of these even became comic books later like The Phantom.
The Phantom helped establish many of the traditional elements of Superhero characters. Many years ago, in the 16th century, a boy named Christopher Walker was stranded in Bengalla a fictional nation either in Africa or Southern Asia, after a pirate attack on his ship. After being rescued by natives he became known as the "Ghost who walks," and swore to combat evil. After he was killed his son took up the mantle, and so on until the modern Phantom, Kit Walker became the 21st Phantom. The Phantom carried guns, but did not use them to kill, was an expert in many fields, and had his home base, the Cave of the Skull.
(P.S. I love the 1996 movie. One of my favorite movies growing up, even if it is ... well cheesy. It is currently on Netflix.)
Back to actual comic books, the first item that was actually termed a comic book was The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats. To be honest I can't tell much about the comic, other than it doesn't use speech bubbles instead having narration on the side, and most of it appears to be slapstick and wacky. Much of it is super confusing. I found a gallery that collects much of the artwork for it here.
Much of it seems to focus on comedy and is black and white and red all over. Yes I know that's the start of many jokes, but I feel that it is best not to dwell on that. I do love the fact that Rube Goldberg is the artist, and many will recognize the name as coming from Rube Goldberg machines.
Of course the one comic that revolutionized the industry was Action Comics Number 1. The first appearance of the Man of Steel, which we will look at next week.
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