FIRST APPEARANCE OF AN AMERICAN COMIC STRIP.


The Idiot, or, Invisible Rambler. By Samuel Simpleton. Vol 1, no 21. Boston: [Henry Trumbull], May 30, 1818. Folio (294 x 242 mm). Woodcut caricature in masthead, 3 woodcuts in text. Minor foxing.THE FIRST AMERICAN COMIC STRIP appeared in The Idiot in 1818. It is distinguished from earlier, mostly political, cartoons, in that it featured a recurring character who spoke in word balloons. On page three of this pseudonymously published journal appears an illustration of two men meeting each other on horseback: one, finely dressed, sitting erect on a robust steed, declares, "I am going to Ohio"; the other, barefoot in ragged clothes on a stooped nag, replies "I have been." The comic accompanies an installment of the "Journal of Brother Jerry's Tour to the Ohio," a farcical tale set in what was then the Western frontier of Ohio. See "The Pioneer Age" in Overstreet (39th ed).