Rodolphe Töpffer: The Complete Comic Strips [Hardcover]

David Kunzle (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1578069467 | ISBN-13: 978-1578069460 | Edition: Reprint

Among the many accomplishments in art and literature by Genevan Rodolphe Töpffer (1799-1846), his virtual invention of the comic strip, or graphic novel, stands out as the most surprising, curious, and to us, after a century inundated by comic strips, by far the most significant.

This volume is the first English-language version of the Töpffer comics oeuvre and includes (unlike previous French and German editions) all of his eight full-length stories, plus previously unpublished fragments of stories started and abandoned and manuscript segments omitted in the printed versions. Comics scholar Kunzle translates the captions from the French, gives essential biography and chronology, and appends socio-political contexts for all the stories with explanation of references obscure today. He deals with questions of dating and the differences among manuscript, printed version, and the various editions. He also lists the plagiaries, translations, and adaptations in other media.

Töpffer's complete comic strip output, combined with Kunzle's annotative material and analyses, makes this volume one of the most significant works of comics history to be published and reestablishes Töpffer's seminal place in the comics canon.

David Kunzle is author of From Criminal to Courtier: The Soldier in Netherlandish Art, 1550-1670 and Decade of Protest: Political Posters from the United States, Vietnam, and Cuba, 1965-1975.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The recent legitimization of the comic strip has brought plenty of vintage-strip reprintings and analyses of the medium. David Kunzle offers volumes of both devoted to the nineteenth-century Swiss who may have invented the comic strip. Rodolphe Topffer (1799-1846), whose work remains interesting also for the insight into its era that it affords, used many devices associated with comics, as the massive Complete Comic Strips shows. Narratives consist of sequential arrays of cartoonish, simplified illustrations separated by panel borders. Topffer didn't use word balloons, but each drawing is captioned. Pictures or words alone wouldn't suffice to tell the story--and that constitutes one very recognizable definition of comics. The eight stories in the book combine wild slapstick and droll social commentary as they relate the humorous exploits of such eccentrics as Mr. Jabot, who wreaks havoc at a society ball; Mr. Crepin, who oversees the education of his brood of unruly children; and Dr. Festus, who travels the world, leaving disaster in his wake. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Publisher

This first English-language edition of the premier comic artist's work

---Provides the first English-language edition of the comics pioneer's entire oeuvre

---Includes previously unpublished fragments of uncompleted stories, preliminary sketches, and omitted sections from earlier editions

---Offers translation from the French and contextualization by Topffer scholar David Kunzle

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 650 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi; Reprint edition (April 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578069467
• ISBN-13: 978-1578069460
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,145,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rare Treat, June 26, 2007

By 

Robert S. Petersen (Eastern Illinois University) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rodolphe Töpffer: The Complete Comic Strips (Hardcover)

At long last the father of comics, Töpffer, has made it back into print in grand style. This exceptionally researched volume by David Kunzle is a compilation of Topffer's early experiments in picture stories that were the impetus for modern comics everywhere in Europe and the United States. Before this publication these works were only available in research libraries and rare book collections. It not only includes all eight of Töpffer's puplished stories it also includes a few never before seen omissions, variants, and a few unfinished works. This is not just for comic enthusiasts or historians these are genuinely entertaining stories that have an absurdist vein that is startling and engaging. Töpffer is was not a primative or a novice, but an exceptional visionary who saw a new way to tell stories as if they were actually happening in front of you over time. He played with this innovation drawing out some remarkablly original ways of telling stories that channeled the spirit of Tristam Shandy and put it in the body of James Gilray.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun for graphic artists, July 15, 2008

By 

Mersereau - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rodolphe Töpffer: The Complete Comic Strips (Hardcover)

This is an amazing book, documenting the early graphic artist, a French man. His drawings and accompanying text, translated into English, are droll and wry. The format is a trifle large to hold, as the book is oversize. I recommend this book to followers of comedy and artists!