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The Origins of Comics from William Hogarth to Winsor McCay by Thierry Smolderen, translated by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen. University Press of Mississippi. 2016. $35.85 hardcover; $34.06 e-book. 168 pages.
reviewed by Susan Ohmer
Histories of the comics often stay within a national framework, situating an artist or comic strip in the visual or literary traditions of a particular country. Thierry Smolderen's The Origins of Comics from William Hogarth to Winsor McCay constructs the development of comic art within a broader cultural and linguistic framework that connects work done in England, France, Germany, and the United States.1 He explores the contributions of artists who are well known to historians of the medium, such as William Hogarth, as well as those who are discussed less often, such as Rodolphe Töpffcr and Arthur Burdett Frost. In the process Smolderen brings to light the creative and imaginative work that has helped develop the transgressive attitudes and visual innovations for which comics continue to be admired.
Thierry Smolderen is a Belgian writer, musician, and critic who has coauthored several comic-book series, including Gipsy (Europe Comics, 1993-2002), with art by Enrico Marini, and Sonic Adventures (1994), featuring the video-game hero, with art by Mister B. Most recently he collaborated with Dominique Bertail on the series Ghost Money (2008-2016).2 In addition to his creative work, Smolderen has published many critical essays on the history of comics. The Origins of Comics appeared in France in 2009 and is now being published in translation by the University Press of Mississippi as part of its important series on comics and popular culture.3
Smoldcren works within the tradition of French criticism of the past several decades, discussing graphic art as a form of writing, or écriture. He traces the roots of comics back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when graphic artists such as William Hogarth and novelists including Henry Fielding and Laurence Sterne developed new forms of storytelling that incorporated both visual and written elements. In the process of reevaluating the systems of representation of their time, they also critiqued the social and political structures of their day-critiques that comic books continue in the present era.
Hogarth's popular engraved series A Harlot's Progress (1732) and The Rake's Progress (1735) continue to impress viewers...