European comics

History

The roots of European on-paper comics date back to 18th century caricatures (mocking others styles or behaviors) by artists such as William Hogarth. The early 19th century Swiss artist Rodolphe Töpffer is regarded by many as the "father of the modern comic" and his publication Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois (1837) is sometimes called the first "comic book".

Other precursors include illustrated picture books such as Wilhelm Busch's Max and Moritz (1865).

Franco-Belgian comics, Spanish comics, and Italian comics are historically amongst the dominant scenes of European comics.

Earlier, paintings, depicting stories in subsequent frames, using descriptive text resembling bubbles-text, were used in murals, one such example is written in Greek, dating to the 2nd century and found in Capitolias, today in Jordan.