Revolutions in

Communication
Media History from
Gutenberg
to the Digital Age

Slides based on the Bloomsbury book by Bill Kovarik

Chapter 4a – Images and editorial cartoons

Web site & textbook
http://www.revolutionsincommunication.com

Textbook:

1st edition – 2011 2nd edition – 2016

 Durable
media
Ceramic inscription,
Assyria, 800 BCE
shows a bird-man
figure.

Here Assurpanipal II is
proclaiming that he was
beloved of the gods,
that he was fearless in
battle, victorious over
all…

Stone and clay

tablets like these
demonstrate what
Harold Innis called
durable time-biased
forms of durable media.
Cylinder seal, 2500–2400 BCE
(left) and impression (right)
Diamond Sutra, 686 CE
 Illuminated
manuscripts
Note the monk here is
using both ink pen and
paint brush, indicating
that both words and
pictures are important.
Wood block printing
Biblia Pauperum, 1462
Columbus - 1490s
Printed cover image
from Letters of
Columbus circulated
throughout Europe in
early 1500s

Because of printing,
there is only one version
of Columbus’ letters
describing his
explorations, unlike
Marco Polo two
centuries beforehand.

Columbus also goes

into gory detail about his
genocidal acts against
the Caribbean natives.
 Nuremberg Chronicles 1493
A fascinating
glimpse into the
Medieval mindset,
the Chronicles
depict five Biblical
ages from creation
to the birth of
Christ, then one
age to the present
and a seventh age
leading to the Last
Judgment.
Etching & engraving
Albrecht Dürer – 1518
 Hogarth (1697–1764)
especially, is
noteworthy as taking
advantage of an age
in
which the visual
environment was
becoming increasingly
complex.

William
Hogarth
1751
Benjamin Franklin 1754
Hokusai Katsushika, c.1790
Hokusai Katsushika, c. 1790
Lithography process - 1796
James Gillray’s Napoleon,
1803
John
James
Audubon

Birds of
America

1827 – 36
Honoré Daumier, 1832

Caricature of French King Louis Philippe as Gargantua.

Currier & Ives – 1840
Currier & Ives – 1840
 William
Kleinenbroich
, 1842
The New
Prometheu
s
Currier & Ives c. 1869
(Opposing women’s rights)
 Belle Star
1886
Myra Maybelle Shirley
Star escapes from jail in
this 1886 depiction from
the National Police
Gazette.

Even before
photography, television
and the internet, people
enjoyed sensational
stories of rebellion and
wild characters.
Thomas Nast (1840 – 1902)
The trial of
Oscar
Wilde

Police
News
London
1895
Minneapolis
c. 1902

TR taking
the railroad
“trust” by
the horns
 Louis
Raemaeker
s

Dutch
cartoonist

“The
German
Tango”
1916
 Bill
Mauldin’s
Pulitzer
winning
1945
cartoon
Jules Feiffer, 1970

Portrait of
Black
Panther
leader
Bobby Seale
during the
Chicago
Eight trial
 Velvet revolution cartoon
Czech Republic, 1989,
mimeograph

Beat them, Rudolph. The nation is standing behind

Review: People
 Albrech Drurer, William Hogarth,
James Gillray, Honoré Daumier,
Currier & Ives, Hokusai Katsushika,
Thomas Nast, Louis Raemaekers, Bill
Mauldin,
Review: Issues
 Cave paintings, cylinder seals, durable
media, illuminated manuscripts,
incunabula, scriptorium, Diamond
Sutra, etching, engraving, Nuremburg
Chronicles, Biblia pauperum, Thirty-
Six Views of Mount Fuji, Prometheus,
lithography
Next: Chapter 4
Photography