CHAM BEST COMIC STRIPS & GRAPHIC NOVELETTES 1839-1862 HC

Cham, real name Count Amédée de Noé and a serious rival to Daumier, may have been the epitome of a célèbre inconnu, a famous unknown. He is one much deserving, at last, of this fi rst account of his huge oeuvre as a caricaturist. This book concentrates on his mastery of the important newcomer to the field of caricature, which we call comic strip, picture story, and graphic novel. The volume features facsimiles of nearly twenty of these from 1839 to 1863 and ranging from one page to forty (this last a parody of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables). In addition, summaries and sample illustrations of twenty-seven 'minor works' demonstrate that Cham is by far the most important specialist of what was then a new genre in Europe.