In today’s twin-themed installment of Women’s History Month and Pre-Yellow Kid “Talking” Comic Strips (multi-panel sequential comics conveyed via pictures combined with in-panel dialogue), we present Part 1 (of 6), of artist Robert Seymour’s March 1st, 1830 comic graphic novelette, The Heiress.

Consisting of six over-sized plates/pages, each containing five+ cartoons, The Heiress at first glance appears to be yet another “comic scrapbook”-style collection of random single panel images, which were particularly popular in the 1820′s thru 1840′s. Close examination, though, shows The Heiress to be a bit more. Seymour here is experimenting with the form. Rather than random cartoons, the cartoons follow the same set of characters through a sequence of events, moving forward in time, and telling a long, multi-pane, multi-page narrative, running the length of Seymour’s album-sized booklet. Moreover, the entire story is told via in-panel word balloons integrated with cartoon pictures — precisely the combination which numerous comics historians once claimed did not appear until its use in 1896, in the Yellow Kid comic series — sixty-six years after The Heiress!.

Click on the above & below pictures, to open larger versions.

It takes a little work to figure out how to read The Heiress — keep in mind that in 1830, Robert Seymour had few prior examples of how to lay out a multi-page graphic narrative. (The first French language Rodolphe Toepffer graphic novels had been published at this point, but they weren’t yet widely distributed, and we’ve no evidence Seymour had seen them). So, Seymour’s solution (bumpy as it is) was to layout the pages like those of a standard cartoon scrapbook, and let the readers figure it out.

The order in which the panels are read goes: top-left corner, top-right corner, large central image, bottom-left corner, then bottom-right corner. I’ve presented the entire plate/page 1 above, but for ease of modern readers, below, I’ve created close-ups of each panel, in their proper reading sequence. One additional antiquated peculiarity to keep in mind — what looks like an “f”, in the 1830′s could be read as an “s”. For example, “Mifs” should be read as “Miss”.

Below, in the opening panel, we’re introduced to the (not-yet) Heiress (crying in the background), evidently living with her Aunt & Uncle Crosstich. Her Aunt, at least, apparently has a low opinon of her.

Panel Two, we find her being hit upon by the lowly Tom the Apprentice.

Panel Three, a lawyer arrives at the door, announcing that she has inherited a fortune from a grandfather from India.

Panel Four, Tom, listening behind the door, has his hopes dashed, as it is apparent the (now) Heiress won’t need to settle for him.

Panel Five, the young Heiress leaves her Aunt & Uncle, who now try to cozy up to her, while Tom in the background continues his despair.

Next week, another installment of Pre-YK Talkies. Unfortunately, not yet Page Two of The Heiress, as I’m still operating under the limitation of my stuff boxed up from/for a cross-state move that has been dragging on for months, awaiting a break in this winter’s weather. (This is being resolved today — I’m on the highway as you read this, driving a U-Haul, to consolidate the material I use for this blog, into one accessible location). The Pre-YK Talkies series is utilizing material I scanned years ago.

Doug Wheeler

PreYKStrips