Archive for August 22nd, 2009

William Blake: The First Graphic Novelist?

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

This morning, I was cleaning my bookshelves.  This is usually an ineffective activity for me; I pick up a book to dust it and two hours later I find myself having reread it, still in its dusty condition.  I haven’t yet found an efficient strategy to combat this.

Today I fell upon my teeny, tiny Book of Urizen by the poet and artist William Blake.  And the first thing that I thought as I opened the pages was, “Ohh!  It’s actually a graphic novel!”  How did I not make the connection before?  See for yourself:

This book was written in 1794.