For a short while I was certain that another contender for
the honour of the World’s first comic hero were the two unnamed apprentices who
appeared in The Comick Magazine, subtitled “The Compleat Library: of mirth,
humour, wit, gaiety, and entertainment. By the greatest wits of all ages and
nations. Enriched with Hogarth’s celebrated humourous comical and moral
prints.”. It was first published on 1st April 1786 by a Mr. Harrison
of London, and folded less than a year later on 2nd January 1797,
producing approximately 41 issues. Each monthly edition of the magazine, which
was otherwise completely text, came with a coloured plate as mentioned in the
subtitle, and they came together to form a series called ‘Industry and
Idleness’. Each plate showed part of an adventure of the two unnamed apprentices, which, when put together, created a very rough story, an early attempt at a sort of comic strip, but not really the comic heroes I'm looking for as they are more separate pictures than a running character. They were painted by William Hogarth in 1747. William had died in 1764, some years before The Comick Magazine was first published.
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| Industy and Idleness, by William Hogarth. |
You may have heard of a publication called The Glasgow Looking Glass, a contender for the world's first comic and therefore there was also a possibility that it might feature the world's first comic hero. The Glasgow Looking Glass ran for five issues from 11th June 1825 - 3rd April 1826, before turning into The Northern Looking Glass. It was soon cancelled not because it was unpopular, but because the publisher (John Watson) and artist (William Heath) made too many enemies from the people they mocked. There turned out to be just one strip in the publication that appeared in more than one issue. It was entitled The History of a Coat, which followed a coat through its history. It appeared in issues #2 - #5, with the coat being the recurring character. However, whether or not a coat can be accepted as a comic hero is debatable, so I decided to find something more solid.
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The first issue of The Glasgow
Looking Glass. |
That brought me forwards to 1850, to the pages of The Penny Illustrated News (not to be confused with The Penny Illustrated Paper). Launched on 27th October 1849 by publisher William Strange, it lasted until 5th April 1851. The first issue of interest, Vol. I No. 18 is perhaps one of the most important general publications in history. Dated 23rd February 1850 it not only introduced the world the newspaper strip but
also the first recurring comic character – Mr. Green. The full title was ‘The
Sentimental & Dramatic Adventures Of Mr. Green’, and it appeared on page
four of this paper (numbered page 140 because when all issues were bound this
would be the page number) by a sadly unaccredited illustrator, although my best
guess would be that it was John Leech. Mr. Green, often referred to as ‘Mr. G’
for short, is 45 years of age, single, has a passion for music and acting and
has a cat called Tom, so quite a bit can be said for the character despite his
short run. The end of the first strip ended with the line: “(To be
continued.)”, and readers were treated to another two adventures in the life of
Mr. Green. The Penny Illustrated News was a weekly paper that came out on a
Saturday (in 1850 the government banned the transmission and delivery of
letters on a Sunday, but this law lasted just a few weeks) so the second part
appeared in Vol. I No. 19 dated 2nd March 1850, and the third part
in Vol. I No. 20, dated 9th March 1850. This third strip also
featured the familiar “(To be continued.)” line at the bottom yet no more
adventures were published. The story as a whole followed Mr. Green’s love for
the girl under the yellow bonnet, although the third episode is rather strange
because although it starts with him coming back from searching for this woman
it turns to him studying magnetism and electricity. Whether or not any more
stories were written and drawn I can’t say, but I know the strip received mixed
emotions because I have found two separate letters regarding his adventures. Although
the actual letters from the readers don’t appear, the responses do, for a
number of responses from the editor, William Strange, were published in each
edition of the paper in a section called ‘The Correspondents’ on the back page
(they began in Vol. I No. I, with the first one rather harshly reading “C.S –
Your sketches are not suitable to our columns: they want originality”). The first letter regarding Mr. Green’s
adventures appeared in Vol. I No. 27, dated 27th April 1850. It
read: “J.Y. – You wish CAMERA SKETCHES, instead of such comicalities as the
pictured “Adventures of Mr. Green;” a few passages of which appeared in this
Journal some time ago. We recommence with a view of Lomond Hill. We join you in
opinion that as much can be learned from comic writing as comic drawing, and we
wish to devote the expense incurred by engraving to subjects of a permanent
character.”. A second response appeared some weeks later in Vol. I No. 35,
dated 22nd June 1850. Although much shorter this time, it read
simply: “A.Z. – We cannot recall Mr. Green’s adventures.”.
Now, I know you're all ready to see these strips, so here they are, all three of them! Enjoy! And as always, click on the images and then again to view in full size.
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| No. 1 |
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| No. 2 |
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| No. 3 |
So there you have it, the World's first newspaper strip and the competition for the World's first recurring comic character, which is between a coat and a man named Mr. Green. Which do you think deserves the title?
Bibliography:
I don't normally include a bibliography but for this post I feel it would be helpful for anybody wishing to research this further.
I would like to thank Laurence Grove of the University of
Glasgow for information regarding 'The Glasgow Looking Glass' and 'The History of
A Coat' strip.
I would like to thank Sarah Wheale of the Bodleian Library
in Oxford for helping me with information regarding 'The Comick Magazine'.
I would also like to thank Bill Emery of the British Library for help with information regarding The Penny Illustrated News.
Further resources:
John Leech, His Life and His Work, 2 Vols, 1891, William
Powell Frith
The Penny Illustrated News No. 18.-Vol. I. Saturday,
February 23, 1850., page no. 137
The Sentimental and Dramatic Adventures Of Mr. Green Episode
no. 1, Page 140
The Penny Illustrated News No. 19.-Vol. I. Saturday, March
2, 1850., page no. 145
The Sentimental and Dramatic Adventures Of Mr. Green no. 2,
Page 148
The Penny Illustrated News No. 19.-Vol. I. Saturday, March
9, 1850., page no. 153
The Sentimental and Dramatic Adventures Of Mr. Green no. 3,
Page 156
The Penny Illustrated News No. 27.-Vol. I. Saturday, April
27, 1850., page no. 209
To Correspondents, Response to letter regarding Mr. Green, page
no. 216
The Penny Illustrated News No. 35.-Vol. I. Saturday, June
22, 1850, page no. 279
To Correspondents, Response to letter regarding Mr. Green,
page 286
