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Holly Tyler
Mary- Jayne Davis
English 2010-008
February 22, 2014
The importance of illustrated language
Since the beginning of man there has been a need to
communicate stories and history. Aside from language, the first
form we discovered was through drawings. These images can still
be seen on the walls of the caves of our ancestors. Although
civilizations have developed alphabets and written language,
pictures are still worth a thousand words as drawing and images
still serve as an important form of communication and as a
learning tool. This is how children are first taught to learn and
express themselves and that passion is still evident as people
grow and continue to display this through the form of cartoons,
comic books, and graphic novels.
Before one can understand the present form of graphic
literature there must be an understanding of its origin. First lets
go back to the about 19,000 years ago to the first caveman
painting found in Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave in the South of France. These

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painting are the oldest known in the Paleolithic age, mostly of Bison and other
animals, scientists often wonder why they found the need
to paint drawings on the wall. Some think that it was a
form of decoration; many of the drawings were painted
over which indicates that there were many people that
lived there over time. Others hypothesize that cavemen
thought that painting animals on the wall that it would
caveman paintings in the
Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave.
Figure 1

improve their hunt and by capturing the animals faces it

would bring them luck in capturing them in the hunt.

(brief History on Cave Paintings) There were also the hieroglyphics in ancient
Egypt that were one of the first forms of a known written language using symbols.
Egyptians wrote mostly on the pyramids and tomb walls of royalty to tell about
their fallen rulers. (History of Hieroglyphics)
Comics first started to appear as a form of mass media when the printing
press made it easier to distribute information. However education, especially
literacy was only afforded to a small percentage of the population thus the aiding a
need for an alternative means to divulge information to the masses. Many
newspapers and forms of communication were often done through cartoons and
drawings to get political views such as Poor Richards Almanac , by Benjamin
Franklin in 1732, to advance the revolution throughout America.

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Even today political views are often through the funnies of the
newspapers an example is the comic strip
Doonesbury. (Stan Tychinski)
Comics took a big step in 1895 when they first
tested color (specifically yellow) into the newspapers
with the "yellow kid" in the comic Down Hogan's Alley.
This big eared little boy had two compelling versions ran in the New York papers
for more than eighty-eight tear strips, making the first successful comic strip in
America. The creator R.F Outcault featured characters such as the yellow kid and
later, a more famous character, Buster Brown. He created a scenario with these big
eared, buck toothed children growing up on the wrong side of the tracks by making
fun of new stresses about the class and racial tensions of the urban consumerist
environment. He managed to make fun of each ethnic culture, excluding African
Americans, by making it easy for Americans to make fun of the faults in each
ethnic group. Outcault used the vaudeville theatre as one of the setting because
newspapers were primarily distributed in cities and his audience was able to relate
to this setting because it was a popular form of entertainment
for the urban culture in the late 1800's and early part of the
1900's. Outcault's comics became so popular throughout the

Benjamin
Franklin wrote
the POOR
RICHARD
AMANAC the
printed in 1732
to initialize the
American
Revolution.
Figure 2

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United States that he became commercialized on billboards

and signs (Yellow Kid on the Paper Stage).
After World War II, two major comic industries began to
surface and then eventually dominated the comic industry,
Marvel comics and Detective Comics (known as DC
comics). Naturally the super heros coincided with the war
in Germany; each super hero took their turn fighting the
Nazis and conquering Hitler. Many of the heros were patriotic symbols because
they donned the American colors of red, white and blue. One of the more popular
heros was known as Captain America and he became loved throughout the United
Yellow Kid was a comic strip in
the late 1800's with the first
test color, yellow. Comic by R.F.
Outcault

States with children and adults fighting side by side

with the military in his comics however, as times
changed and the war was coming to an end other

characters took a different route than Captain America by going a more storybound scene in the World War II era. Although, the stories were still war-themed,
new characters such as Batman and Superman would fight off different villains
and big robotic figures with a patriotic undertone. All of these comics had a
stereotypical portrayal with added superpowers that were often allegory to what
actually was happening in the real world. After the war ended comics didn't have a
popular story line to tell their audience, so they naturally gravitated to use a great

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storyline that had a distinct line between good and evil. Americans gravitated
toward the fantasy fairy tale, although some writers
still prefer to base their comics loosely off of
political events social issues . (Jesse Schedeen)
After the civil right movement began, comics
gained another heroic storyline to write about.
Some of the most popular comic book writers, Stan
Lee and Jack Kirby's wrote about the social
conflicts and human rights involving mutant
humans, this popular comic was The X-men. These characters showed the public
that it was acceptable to be different, the struggle and
individual must endure to achieve equality. The X-men
along with the rest of the Marvel universe touch on the
very same themes that society struggles with today, which
is why these stories are so beloved. Unfortunately, like
any other genre its brilliance took a long time to be

Captain
America
comic
became the
number one
comic in the
United
States in
March 1941.
Figure 4

recognized. Despite this delay that public is now well aware of comics and their
importance as seen by their presence in mass media and popular culture today.
(Jesse

Schedeen ) The fact that we hold the differences between right and wrong

and have heros fight for the greater good, even if it is figuratively, it shows that we

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care about what is happening in our world and that we

want to immerse ourselves in it.
Cavemen drawings and Egyptian hieroglyphics are
some of the earliest forms of graphic literature. This art
form transcends culture and language barriers and serves
as a medium for learning and storytelling. That is a
natural way to bring people together and encourage
communication and thought. Throughout history drawings have had a way to
encourage awareness about history's flaws and reflect on social issues that people
can discuss. It prevents us from sweeping these problems under the rug and allows
us to point out the need for change. Even though comics are perceived as childish
once cannot deny the impact and effectiveness of graphic literature.

X-men comics started in the

civil right movements by Stan
Lee and Jack Kirby's
Figure 5

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Work Cited
Albert, Aaron. 2014. A Brief Overview And History Of Creating Comic Books,
The How And Who Of Creating Comics. 2/22/2014. Web
Albert, Aaron . 2014. DC Comic Profile. 2/22/2014. Web
Admin. 2013. History of DC Comics. Web
Attic Designs. 2008. History of Hieroglyphics. 2/22/2014. Web
Biersdorfer, J.D.. November 16,2012. Spinning their web of the New York Times.
Web. 2/22/2014
Blackbeard, Bill. 1995. Yellow Kid on the paper stage. 2/21/2014
Schedeen, Jesse. March 7, 2011. Marvel Comics and History, From World War II to
the Great Recession, we look at how Marvel's heroes and history have
collided. 02/04/2014. Web
Tychinski, Stan. February 24, 2014. A Brief History of the Graphic Novel.
2/22/2014. Web
March 18,2008. Archetypes, Commercialism, and Hollywood; A history of Comic
books. 02/04/2014

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2004. A Brief History on Cave Paintings. 2/22/2014. Web

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Picture Cited
Figure 1: History of Graphic Novels. Web
Figure 2: History of Graphic Novels. Web
Figure 3: COM 208: Pulitzer vs. Hearst: Yellow Journalism Era. Figure 3. Web
Figure 4: Google. Web
Figure 5: X-Men history. Figure 24. Web