| A Brief History of Comics |
| Modern (printed) comics appeared in the 1830s—in the form of Rodolphe Töpffer's | Párr. 1 |
| pioneering work—which makes them more or less contemporary with the invention of |
| photography. And yet, it was not until the 1960s that the French language found a permanent |
| name for this mode of expression—that was, by then, over a hundred years old. During this |
| 5 | long period, comics were known, not as bandes dessinées (literally strips that have been |
| drawn) but, successively or indiscriminately, as histoires en estampes, which is Töpffer's |
| own term (stories told in prints), histoires en images (picture stories), récits illustrés |
| (illustrated tales), films dessinés (films made of drawings) and of course, comics. |
| Since coming into existence, comics have twice changed their readership and their | Párr. 2 |
| 10 | form. Readership first. During the nineteenth century comics were intended for adults, only |
| to be relegated, at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the pages of the children's press. |
| So it is in the illustrated youth magazines that France first discovered the great American |
| series (Brick Bradford, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Popeye, and so many others), whereas |
| on the other side of the Atlantic, they were originally published in the daily newspapers. |
| 15 | The re-conquest of the adult readership—begun in the 1960s by France Soir, Pilote, | Párr. 3 |
| Hara-Kiri, Charlie hebdo, Chouchou, and Charlie mensuel, as well as by the innovating |
| publisher Eric Losfeld—is finally accomplished in 1972 when Gotlib, Bretécher and |
| Mandryka launch L'Echo des Savanes, the first "adults only" comics magazine, so putting |
| an end to an historical parenthesis of almost three quarters of a century. |
| 20 | Concerning the form given to comics, after having originally appeared in book form | Párr. 4 |
| (Töpffer's, Cham's, Doré's and other founders' albums), comics in the 1870s had become a |
| press phenomenon. For more or less a century, only the most popular works were given the |
| honor of being released as albums after pre-publication in the press. Tens of thousands of |
| other pages (often mediocre, but sometimes by undeniably talented artists) were to fall into |
| 25 | oblivion after having been "consumed" in the press. |
| But in the 1970s, the production of albums suddenly increases exponentially and in | Párr. 5 |
| the next decade stabilizes at a very high level: around six hundred new albums are printed in |
| French every year. At the same time, the illustrated press goes into decline, many "historic" |
| magazines cease to exist (Tintin, Pif, Pilote, Charlie, Metal Hurlant . . .). In this way, a |
| 30 | second loop is formed: after having won back its adult readership, comic art operates a return |
| to its original form, the book. |
| Fuente: Gorensteen, T. (2009). Why are Comics Still in Search of Cultural | |
| Legitimization? En Heer, J. & Worcester, K. A Comics Studies Reader. University of | |
| Mississippi Press. | |
| 35 | | |