Early Comics Archive

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Wilhelm Busch
Bilderbogen - Busch made 50 of these. Here are some of the best.

The Warm Bath (1865) Bilderbogen number 278 - wordless (and as it happens, fairly plotless as well, just a neat piece of observation)

The Flea (1865) Bilderbogen number 390 - wordless - alternative title: .Disturbed and Refound Peace of Night'

The Virtuoso (1865) Bilderbogen number 465 -more or less wordless - Astonishing page, which was to influence many artists, for instance H.M.Bateman.

The Baber and his clever dog (1865) Bilderbogen number 399 - wordless - Nasty little strip, not quite the 'Barber of Fleet Street', but well on the way. Was imitated in Alley Sloper album.

The Little Honey Thieves (1859) Bilderbogen number 242 - The first appearance of two Katzenjammer Kids type rapscallions. It's in the format of an illustrated story, but the pictures work as a comic on their own. The art is a mixture of the detailed illustration of the time in the backgrounds and the already snappy characterisation of the figures. - The start of 'big nose cartooning'.

The Hollow Tooth (1865) Bilderbogen number 330 - uses some text underneath, but that's basically repeating what the pictures show. - This comic was surely directly inspired by the similar one by Cruikshank, which you can admire here.

(More to come)