Gustave Doré

Twelve Comic Strips

David Kunzle, David Kunzle

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781626745896
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Critica letteraria di fumetti e graphic novel

Among the masters of the nineteenth-century comic strip, Gustave Doré has been much neglected. For his illustrations to literary classics, he earned an unsurpassed reputation and corresponding scholarly attention. Doré himself repudiated his early work, and similarly critics and biographers have given short shrift to his beginnings as a caricaturist. These caricatures are herein rescued entirely for the first time in English by the renowned comics scholar David Kunzle. Doré's caricature is known to a few specialists, but virtually no one has pointed out that his mastery of the comic strip particularly marks him as an entirely original figure in the post-Töpffer era of revolutionary, mid-century France. Doré, remarkably, created these comic strips when he was between fifteen and twenty-two years old, for Charles Philipon's Journal pour Rire ( The Laughter Journal ), virtually dominating its seven-year (1848-55) history. He also did three fairly long, separately published albums, which show him at his very best. They are consistently funny, often ludicrous, and illustrate a graphic inventiveness unmatched until the twentieth century. In these graphic stories, Doré parodies an ancient fable, the discomforts of life in the country, the perils of artistic ambition, the absurdities of mountaineering and travel, as well as the antics of schoolboys. This book provides a context for Doré's caricatures, focusing on his comic strips in the Journal pour Rire, the character of the journal, and the three comic strip albums he created while he worked there. Kunzle's analysis reveals Doré's debts to his predecessors, Töpffer, Cham, and Nadar. None of Doré's Journal strips has ever been republished. Some of the albums were republished, reduced and incomplete, in German and French. This edition includes facsimiles of the twelve most significant comic strips and the first translation into English of the captions.

THE COMIC STRIPS

1. Les Travaux d’Hercule (The Labors of Hercules)

Album, 1847

The Labors of Hercules were composed, drawn, and lithographed by an artist of fifteen years, who learned to draw without a master and without study of the classics. It seemed to us that this was not the least curious thing about this original album, and we wanted to say so here, not only to pique the interest of the public for this young draftsman, but also in order to establish the departure point of Mr. Doré, whom we believe to be called to a distinguished rank in the arts.

The second Album of Mr. Doré will be executed in (lithographic) pencil, and will appear in February.

Aubert and Co.

One fine day Eurystheus, doubting the strength of his jolly fellow of a brother, makes him take up various frightful challenges.

Hercules goes off, convinced that wanting is doing.

The terrible lion from the forest of Nemea appears to him. . . . . . .

Hercules, uniting skill to strength and courage, seizes the animal by the tail, and swings him around with the violence of a slingshot.

Escaping the hands of Hercules, the monster plants himself in the earth two leagues from there.

So violent was the ever-increasing speed with which Hercules has swung him around.

Before risking anything, Hercules makes sure that he is really dead.

He digs up the beast, who gives no signs of life. An icy stiffness has seized its members.

The mayor of the commune of Nemea comes to congratulate the conqueror for having rid the area of so troublesome a neighbor.

Hercules can think of nothing better than to order a winter overcoat from the tanner.

Meanwhile the tanner finds himself besieged by an innumerable crowd of curiosity-seekers.

The overcoat fits perfectly.

Eurystheus, feeling nervous because of his wager, orders Hercules to rid the commune of Lerna of a monster commonly called the Hydra even more redoubtable than the lion.

Drunk with his first triumph, Hercules sets off, playing the lion on the streets of every town he encounters.

Arriving at the frontier of the commune of Lerna, Hercules sees that that he will have to cross very swampy countryside.

Later, he sees that he has been sent into a very wet region.

Hercules exits these soggy parts covered over with swamp-plants.

Here he is in a tête-à-tête with the dread Hydra, the monster no doubt taking him for a weeping willow, or else a rare edible toad

Hercules, who following his usual habit unites strength to skill and courage, succeeds in capturing the seven heads of the monster with his heavy club.

Having thus made the monster respect him for 2 days and 2 nights, Hercules withdraws suddenly and knocks off all the heads with a violent blow of his club, always uniting skill to strength.

At the sight of their liberator, some natives take flight, thinking that some great animal phantom is after them.

The innkeeper of Lerna thinks he sees entering his premises a swamp rat of the hugest species.

His wife was even more frightened supposing she is confronted with a sight of the Hydra.

Soon all is explained and the hosts of Hercules contemplate their liberator with faces as long as a fiddle.

While this conversation is underway, a cloud of toads emanating from Hercules’s swampy overcoat invade the hostelry.

The next day Hercules makes his conqueror’s visit to the village authorities.

Even today one can still see over the portal of the town hall seven frightful heads which recall a no less frightful legend.

As for the Hydra’s skin, Hercules twists it dry of its black and deadly blood.

Which gives his missiles a supernatural property.

Hercules, who is thinking of his return, signifies to the mayor that he is not in the least inclined to cross back over the water like the ducks, given that the cold in the head which he caught coming over would likely get worse. The mayor advises him to use stilts.

The first attempts of Hercules are not brilliant.

The skill of Hercules leaves much to be desired.

The mayor has a bright idea. He advises Hercules not to trust in his physical skills, and undertakes to have him conveyed over the watery plain.

By ducks, the only domestic animals who live in these boggy regions.

The next day Hercules returns in great pomp to the frontier of the commune.

The learned men in the academy had considered the seven-headed Hydra as fairy-tale and superstition, any village woman knowing what’s what for all that.

Eurystheus, more and more worried about his wager, finds another commune to be purged.

A cruel and invincible boar living on the Eurymanthian hills was ravaging all the countryside around.

Hercules takes him alive.

And presents him to Eurystheus, who, on seeing him, nearly dies of fright.

Hercules, despite the disadvantage of his corpulence, engages to chase down the famous hind with the golden horns and brass feet of Mount Menal.

Having scented the tracks of the hind for six months (given that he was not allowed any kind of dog), Hercules finally raises her. . . . .

Here he is en route; it is to be hoped that with the exercise, the runner will improve his speed. A bottle of spirits is there to comfort him.

By night as by day.

The nimble creature who pus...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Bibliography
• THE COMIC STRIPS
• Index