Children’s comic strips: from Mickey Mouse to Tintin, history of the 9th art between collective memory and popular culture

The freedom to “loose” is just waiting for you. Passionate about comics or simply curious, let yourself be seduced by the great classics of children’s comics, from Mickey to Zig and Puce, including Quick and Flupke. These iconic albums continue to cross generations and introduce readers to the world of comics.

Considered too visual, comics have not always been considered true reading. Sometimes read in secret, under the sheets, by the light of a flashlight, it has nevertheless often been, for generations, the gateway to the pleasure of reading differently.

Now recognized as the 9th art, comic strips see their emblematic albums circulating randomly at flea markets and garage sales. Collectors flock there at dawn, on the lookout for a rare edition. The walkers stop, caught by a familiar blanket, while the youngest cannot resist the pleasure of touch.

Between nostalgia and curiosity, these examples which have lived, weathered by time, offer a sensory palette. The slightly faded colors, the smell of ink and aged paper, the unique outline of the letters, a sometimes annotated cover page: everything contributes to weaving an invisible but tangible link with those who, in turn, have made this same journey.

Through this evolution, the history of comics traces the birth of a universal language, from the first representations in images to emblematic heroes like Mickey, Tintin or Astérixwhich have left their mark on popular culture.

Long before comics, humans felt the need to tell stories in images. Archaeological discoveries bear witness to this: since prehistory, man has sought to represent the world through visual scenes.

The paintings of the Lascaux cave, created around 17,000 years ago, offer a striking example. Horses, bison and deer appear on the walls, sometimes captured in postures that suggest movement. Already, an intention is emerging: to capture life, to tell the story of the action.

There is obviously no trace of a mouse with big ears, but the idea of ​​telling stories through drawing is already very present.

In Antiquity, this visual narration took shape. In Rome, Trajan’s Column is a spectacular illustration of this. Winded in a spiral, its sculpted frieze unfolds more than 150 scenes recounting the military campaigns of the emperor against the Dacians. The eye follows the reliefs from the bottom to the top, as if turning the pages of a story.

In ancient Egypt, temples and tombs were also covered with frescoes and bas-reliefs. The images follow one another to transmit religious stories and historical facts, in a logic already close to the sequence.

In the Middle Ages, the image established itself as an essential vector of transmission. The illuminated manuscripts combine texts and illustrations, while the stained glass windows of the cathedrals recount, in color and light, the great biblical scenes. In a society where few know how to read, seeing becomes another way of understanding.

With the invention of printing, images circulated more widely. In the 18th and 19th centuries, artists like William Hogarth in England or Katsushika Hokusai in Japan composed series of images which, put end to end, already outline the basis of a sequential narrative.

In the 19th century, Rodolphe Töpffer, Swiss writer and designer, took a decisive step with History of Monsieur Jabot. By closely combining text and image in a continuous narrative, he laid the foundations of what would become modern comics. His black and white plates are organized in strips, where the scenes follow one another, accompanied by short texts placed under the drawings.

With him, something changes: the story is no longer simply illustrated, it is constructed in the very sequence of images. The gaze follows an order, a rhythm, almost a guided reading.

We no longer just look, we read a story in images.

The break is clear. Before Töpffer, the image accompanies the story, with it, it becomes its driving force. His style, often marked by humor and fine social observation, quickly inspired other authors and participated in the gradual emergence of modern comics.

In the decades that followed, comics conquered a wider audience, particularly young people. It is in this context that characters destined to become emblematic are born.

In the United States, Mickeyy quickly established himself as an essential figure in popular culture. Created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, he first appeared in 1930 in daily comic strips (very short comic strip composed of a few images)before crossing the Atlantic and settling in Europe a few years later.

In Europe, other heroes deeply mark the imagination of young readers. Zig and Chipcreated by Alain Saint-Ogan, introduced a free and fanciful tone to France, mixing travel, friendship and absurd situations. As for Quick et Flupkethe brats invented by Hergé, they offer a mischievous look at everyday life through short, lively and often anarchic gags.

In the same movement, other figures emerge and impose themselves in popular culture, such as Tintinthe young reporter imagined by Hergé, or even Astérix et Obélixcreated by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo.

Used children’s comics retain an intergenerational magic, where older children join new readers around the same heroes, in a reading pleasure that never gets old.

Objects are the guardians of our memory. Discover more in the next episodes of Julien Cohen’s Memoirs, every Sunday at 7 p.m. or on our YouTube channel and our social networks.