Writing for Animation, Comics, and Games

CHAPTER   5

History / Evolution of the Comic Book

My belief is that the storytelling form we know today as “comic books” goes back tens of thousands of years to the paintings of animals, hunters, and shamans on cave walls. After all, they are visual depictions “framed” by their setting, and no one can authoritatively say they weren’t intended to tell a pictorial story. I suspect that the urge to tell a story through images is as old as human consciousness.

Egyptian artwork qualifies, with scenes sometimes set out in strips or panels, accompanied by “text” in the form of hieroglyphs. The Greeks told visual stories by wrapping them around vases, or around the friezes of their temples. Comic books are referred to as one of the true American-generated ...