
Lost Literacies
Experiments in the Nineteenth-Century US Comic Strip
Alex Beringer(Author)
Ohio State University Press
Published on 10. January 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-8142-5896-5 (ISBN)
Description
Lost Literacies is the first full-length study of US comic strips from the period prior to the rise of Sunday newspaper comics. Where current histories assume that nineteenth-century US comics consisted solely of single-panel political cartoons or simple "proto-comics," Lost Literacies introduces readers to an ambitious group of artists and editors who were intent on experimenting with the storytelling possibilities of the sequential strip, resulting in playful comics whose existence upends prevailing narratives about the evolution of comic strips.
Over the course of the nineteenth century, figures such as artist Frank Bellew and editor T. W. Strong introduced sequential comic strips into humor magazines and precursors to graphic novels known as "graphic albums." These early works reached audiences in the tens of thousands. Their influences ranged from Walt Whitman's poetry to Mark Twain's travel writings to the bawdy stage comedies of the Bowery Theatre. Most importantly, they featured new approaches to graphic storytelling that went far beyond the speech bubbles and panel grids familiar to us today. As readers of Lost Literacies will see, these little-known early US comic strips rival even the most innovative modern comics for their diversity and ambition.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Columbus, OH
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 178 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
489 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8142-5896-5 (9780814258965)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Alex Beringer is Professor of English at the University of Montevallo. He has held fellowships with the University of Cambridge and the American Antiquarian Society. His research concerns nineteenth-century American visual culture, literature, and comics. Find him at www.alexjberinger.com.