Journal of Research & Scholarly Output 2006 - Grimsby Institute of ...

interesting to note that later European
practitioners of satire such as Honore
Daumier (1808-1879) would not employ
speech balloons in their lithographs, but the
nature of cartoons was set in the English
public’s eye – as was their purpose; to
ridicule and satirise, a sometimes vicious
form of entertainment that is still practised
today.
‘A swarm of Bees hiving in the Imperial
Carriage!’, George Cruikshank, 1816 (f)
The rise of graphic satire is a key point in
understanding the formation of attitudes
within the United Kingdom to sequential art,
and concerns the reaction of the audience
to its messages and presentation. While its
exponents had very clear social issues to
address within their use of caricature or
lampooning, and the communicative
mechanics worked highly effectively to
promote an understanding and appreciation
of these messages, did the nature of the
texts damage attitudes towards the entire
medium? Satirical content may be executed
crudely or creatively, but the exclusive and
continual use of this style and tone within
cartoons may have had a cumulative
negative effect on the British readership
over the best part of a century. The intent of
Gillray to accurately reflect the vigorous and
bitter party political fighting, and Hogarth to
tackle the collapse of civilisation through the
Cartoon medium inevitably meant they had
to ‘filter’ their message in order to make it
universally acceptable in order to prevent
possible censorship from the Governments
of the time. There was an informationhungry,
newly educated audience (thanks to
the move towards text-based language)
who would use their relatively expensive
broadsheets for amusement, information
and discussion and for decades the political
Cartoon would have met a significant part of
this need. There is no doubting the success
of the cartoon medium within the United
Kingdom and across the world, but perhaps
the skill and creativity evidenced in the
visual satire of Gillray, Hogarth, Rowlandson
and Cruikshank within cartoons led to a
familiarity that possibly bred an enduring
contempt for all forms of line-art – including
comic books.
The following few decades within the United
Kingdom would do nothing to change this
attitude towards an art form that continued
its development unabated in Mainland
Europe, thanks mainly to the revolutionary
experiments in sequential narrative
undertaken in Switzerland by the
schoolmaster Rodolphe Topffer (1799-
1846). He produced a series of illustrated
books as well as a revolutionary paper on
physiognomics, the methodology of
interpreting human character, intelligence
and virtue through a close scrutiny of
physical appearance and comparisons to
the animal world that would influence artists
up to Wilhelm Busch and beyond. Topffer
fully understood the metaphorical power of
the cartoon image, but further realised the
potential of narrative storytelling through the
medium. Due to his failing eyesight, Topffer
reverted to writing rather than illustrating
and while this was an unfortunate personal
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