Romantic Caricatures and Comics

Abstract

This chapter begins by examining the role played by caricaturists such as James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, and drawing upon the work of art historians such as Richard Godfrey, Mark Hallett and Todd Porterfield to contextualise such productions as part of the mass media of print culture in the 1790s and early nineteenth century. Particular attention is given to those caricatures of contemporary Romantic figures, such as Cruikshank’s cartoon “Fare Thee Well”, depicting Lord Byron leaving Britain. The second part of this chapter focuses on post-war reception of the Romantics in longer comic books. An important focus is William Blake, not simply because his graphic works have lent themselves more easily to adaptations in comic books, but also because this allows for a brief theoretical discussion of the distinctions between the kind of composite art that Blake was practising to the sequential art of modern-day comics and graphic novels. Artists considered include figures such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman for depictions of Blake, but also Hunt Emerson and Moore’s Watchmen for their adaptations of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.