Why Don Simpson Is Poking at a Scholarly Third Rail
In comics studies, few topics are touchier than the history of comic strips. Cartoonist and researcher Don Simpson recently “stepped on a third rail” by questioning how influential historian David Kunzle uses the term comic strip in his sweeping pre history of comics. Since the 1970s, Kunzle has published major volumes such as History of the Comic Strip, The Early Comic Strip—Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825, along with books on Rodolphe Töpffer that explicitly label their subject as comic strips. Simpson does not dispute the depth of Kunzle’s scholarship; he calls it magisterial. His concern is that applying a twentieth century term like comic strip to much earlier picture stories may distort both the past and our idea of the modern newspaper strip. That linguistic choice, Simpson argues, quietly reshapes the perceived history of comic strips and the origins of American comics.
What Is a Comic Strip, Anyway?
Beneath this quarrel lies a basic question: what is a comic strip? Scholars typically define comics through three elements. First is sequencing: multiple images that readers follow in a specific order to create a narrative or argument. Second is layout: panels arranged in a strip or grid that guide the eye across the page. Third is the relationship between text and image, whether through captions, speech balloons, or words embedded in the art. Kunzle’s work applies the label comic strip to early European broadsheets and narrative picture stories that use sequences of images, even when their layouts and reading habits differ from early newspaper comics. Simpson suggests those works might be better called picture stories, reserving comic strip for the shorter, regularly published, humor leaning features that developed in newspapers. This comics definition debate shows that the phrase comic strip is not neutral; it encodes specific visual and cultural expectations.
How Definitions Move the Starting Line of Comics History
Once you decide what counts as a comic strip, the history of comic strips changes. Kunzle’s broad definition lets the story begin with fifteenth century European broadsheets and long narrative picture cycles, casting centuries of printed picture stories as the deep roots of the medium. Emphasizing continuity highlights how modern formats build on old visual traditions. Simpson’s narrower sense of comic strip shifts the starting line closer to early newspaper comics, the short, recurring strips that readers encountered in mass circulation papers. Under this view, earlier material is crucial but not itself a comic strip; it is pre history, not the main event. That difference affects how we talk about the origins of American comics in particular. Are they the culmination of a long print tradition, or a sharper break created by industrial newspapers, daily deadlines, and the specific format of the early newspaper comic strip?
From Archives to Fandom: Why the Debate Matters Today
Arguments between scholars might sound abstract, yet they quietly influence what fans see as the history of comic strips. If earlier broadsheets and picture stories are embraced as comic strips, museums are more likely to feature them in exhibits about the history of comic strips and early newspaper comics. Publishers may reprint them in lavish volumes marketed as foundational comics, shaping which artists are treated as ancestors of modern American comics. If, as Simpson suggests, we frame them instead as picture stories distinct from the modern comic strip, curators and fans might concentrate more attention on later newspaper pages and characters when celebrating the origins of American comics. In practice, this affects which images appear in timelines, which creators are hailed as pioneers, and how readers understand the seemingly simple question of what a comic strip is and where it truly begins.
A Quick Timeline Toward the Newspaper Comic Strip Boom
Piecing these perspectives together yields a flexible timeline for the history of comic strips. Kunzle’s research plants early seeds in European broadsheets and narrative picture stories printed centuries ago, where sequences of images already tell stories in strip like fashion. In the nineteenth century, experiments with recurring characters and panel layouts bring images closer to what many now consider comics. Rodolphe Töpffer, whom Kunzle dubs father of the comic strip, becomes a key figure because his complete comic strips fuse sequential art, captions, and a recognizable cast. This line of development feeds into mass print culture, paving the way for the explosion of early newspaper comics and the familiar daily comic strip format. Depending on how strictly one defines what is a comic strip, the boom looks either like the latest chapter in a very long history of comics or a relatively fresh invention.