Seeds of a New Art Form

The origins of bande dessinée can be traced to the confluence of several 19th-century developments: the rise of illustrated periodicals, advances in printing technology, and the emergence of a literate middle class hungry for entertainment. While sequential visual narrative has ancient roots – from Egyptian hieroglyphics to the Bayeux Tapestry – the specific combination of elements that would become BD began to coalesce in the turbulent decades following the French Revolution.

The early 19th century saw an explosion of satirical journals in France, publications that mixed political commentary with visual humor. Artists like Honoré Daumier used lithography to create powerful visual narratives that spoke to contemporary issues. While not comics in the modern sense, these works established important precedents: the use of caricature to convey character, the integration of text and image, and the serial publication format that would become central to BD.