Framing pre-1914 British Comics

The chapter presents three frames through which we can start to interrogate early British comics: namely, their relationship with the entertainment environment, with promotional culture, and with intended audiences.

It is offered as an introductory method since this era of comics production remains under-researched (in particular, its historicisation has barely begun), and because theorising the idea of ‘frames’ can sometimes assume separations which may not exist.

These caveats aside, by relating comics to their wider socio-cultural environment, it should be possible to draw out which themes were era-specific, and which endured. In so doing, the hope is to shed light upon how the very definition of ‘a comic’ was being constructed, and to sketch a pattern of development over time.