The document discusses the evolution of comics as a narrative medium and the influence of William Hogarth's 'The Harlot's Progress' on British newspaper cartoons. It highlights the historical reproduction technologies and copyright developments, particularly the 'Hogarth Act' of 1735, which protected artists' reproduction rights. Additionally, it details Robert Bell's 'Bell's Life in London,' its content, and its impact on the comic art form in newspapers.

1. “ The Harlot’s Progress”: Bell’s Life in London and the Birth of the British Newspaper Cartoon Ernesto Priego, University College London London Lives, University of Hertfordshire, 5 July 2010

2. “ Comics”: a medium that conveys narratives or other types of information through a series of still images often in combination with written words, in various techniques and platforms, arranged in one or more sequences on a page or episode or delimited physical space, and separated from one another by the outlined or implied frames of panels, also commonly distinguished from each other by the “gutter”, which is a blank space between them.

3. A Very Brief Genealogy of Reproduction Technologies before the 20 th Century 1380 Earliest known woodcut 1420-1430 Intaglio printing; copper engraving 1440-1450 Printing press; moveable type The Broadsheet (woodcut illustrations and written text on the same page) Etching plate (copper with wax; used by Dürer) Etching refined (Rembrandt; Callot) 1732-1735 Hogarth’s The Harlot’s Progress 1760-1780 Aquatint; tones Thomas Berwick invents white line engraving 1798 Principles of lithography 1839 Daguerrotype patented 1841 Calotype, positives from a single negative 1850 Photogravure/gray scale 1880-1890 Halftone 1884 Mimeography 1891 Kinetoscope 1890-1895 First Sunday newspaper colour supplements

4. William Hogarth (1697-1764) Pioneer of Western sequential art. Independent artist who took on the roles of engraving, advertising and selling versions of his paintings. Early promoter of intellectual property rights.

5. The Harlot’s Progress A series of six paintings, now lost (1731). Six engravings from paintings (1732). The sequence tells the story of Mary (Moll) Hackabout, a London prostitute. First run was a "limited edition" of 1,240 sets of six prints sold to subscribers for a Guinea. Predates earliest examples of mechanically reproduced graphic narratives for at least a century.

12. London Lives I'd like to know more about: Kate Hackabout Francis Hackabout Justice John Gonson Elizabeth 'Mother' Needham Robert Bell William Innell Clement Pierce Egan George Goodyer

13. The Birth of “File Sharing” The engravings were widely pirated. Hogarth procured an Act of Parliament in 1734, the Engravers’ Copyright Act or “Hogarth Act”, protecting the reproduction rights of engravers. The Act became law in 25 June 1735. It recognised the difference between the craftsmen’s labour and the authorial work of artists.

15. Bell's Life in London, and Sporting Chronicle (1822-1886) was a British weekly sporting newspaper. It was read by the ‘literate poor’ and general sporting public of all social classes. Founded by Robert Bell, a London printer and publisher. Bell sold to William Innell Clement, owner of the Observer , in 1824 or 1825. It later swallowed Pierce Egan's Life in London and Sporting Guide.

16. “… combining with the news of the week, a rich repository, of fashion, wit and humour, and interesting incidents of high and low life.”

17. The Gallery of Comicalities (1827)

18. Starting in 1827, Bell ran a weekly feature called 'The Gallery of Comicalities', a series of caricatures, illustrated jokes, and humorous engravings [...] It sold 600,000 copies of the first three issues. Thirty-four of these were gathered together and reprinted as a single full page of cartoons in issue No. 457, published on Sunday, January 2nd, 1831. The following week the whole page was reprinted in a rival newspaper, The Englishman (No. 820), under the heading 'The Englishman's Comic Annual'; whether with or without permission in not known. The feature was such a success that a further 54 cartoons were reprinted in Bell's Life in London for March 12th, with the interesting note that the engravings 'cost the proprietors two hundred and seventy guineas’. George Goodyer assembled four pages of cuts from Bell's and published them as 'The Gallery of 140 Comicalities' on June 24th, 1831.” Cfr. Denis Gifford, Victorian Comics , 1976; Paul Gravett & Peter Stanbury, Great British Comics , 2003.

19. Bell’s publishes a version of The Harlot’s Progress in June 22, 1828

21. The London literary gazette and journal of belles lettres, arts, sciences, etc for the year 1831

22. Conclusions The Harlot’s Progress is a story told in sequential panels (plates). The original paintings were lost, but the engravings produced different reproductions. The story referred to well-known public events and evoked literary works (The Pilgrim’s Progress; Moll Flanders) The story became known with and without captions. Hogarth was a multitasking independent artist very much like comic book artists of today.

23. Hogarth placed the aura of the original in its mechanical reproduction. The Harlot’s Progress inspired literary texts in the same way modern comic book characters inspire novels and films. Bell’s Life was a newspaper read by all sectors of society, with an appeal similar to Hogarth’s prints, depicting “the high and the low”. The new captioned, vertical sequential arrangement of the version published by Bell’s is in fact a comic strip. The new arrangement on the newspaper page inspired new narrative and artistic possibilities and emphasised the mechanical nature of the new art form.

24. Thank you!