The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825 (History of the Comic Strip, Volume 1)

This is the second volume of Kunzle's rather ambitious plan to provide a history of the comic strip. The first, The Early Comic Strip: Picture Stories and Narrative Strips in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825 ( LJ 5/15/74), provided the broad historical foundation; this hefty tome covers the flowering of the comic strip in 19th-century Europe, from the pioneers (Topffer, Hogarth, Cruikshank) to the later, popular caricaturists (Cham, Busch, Petit) and also details the magazines they appeared in ( Charivari, Punch, Fliegende Blatter ). Kunzle's aim is to present this artistic form to an audience unfamiliar with it--which is why Daumier, the 19th-century cartoonist with the largest scholarly legacy, is given short shrift--and he is basically successful. Kunzle laments the failure of academe to treat comic art seriously as well as the erroneous but popular notion that the comic strip was invented in this country. His series may help to change both views. Recommended for research and academic libraries, or any library with a comic art collection. --Keith R.A. DeCandido, "Library Journal"Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.