The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck is widely considered the earliest known comic book. It was originally published in several languages in Europe in 1837. It was reprinted in New York on September 14, 1842 making it the first comic book printed in America.
Odadiah Oldbuck was 40 pages long and measured 8 ½" x 11". The book was side stitched, and inside there were 6 to 12 panels per page. There were no word balloons but there was text under the panels to describe the story. A copy of it was discovered in Oakland, California in 1998.
The comic was created by Switzerland's Rudolphe Töpffer, who is considered by most historians as the creator of the picture story. He created the comic strip in 1827 and the comic book/graphic novel.
Töpffer created several graphic novels that were extremely successful and reprinted in many different languages. Several of them had English versions in the United States in 1846. The books remained in print in the US until 1877.
The number of Victorian Age Comic Books in existence is relatively unknown. This era of comic book history referred to as the Platinum Age is still being discovered, researched and catalogued.
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