Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1950-10-26
bn Marn B. Brewster

Associate Librarian, New York
State Library for the Maryland
Teacher
The comics, so-called, are stories
in pictures, to which sometimes, but
not always, words are added.
They are universally liked by chill
dren, and by many adults. If
there were nothing else about them,
the fact that there are millions
of them published today makes
comics something of problem for
parents, teachers, librarians, in
fact for society as a whole.
Comics, in their present form,
are slightly over so years old. In
half century they have spread
not only over this country, but over
the world.
Cave Comics"
Leaving the present, and going
back not fifty, but many thousands
of years, we find ourselves in caves
and tombs and among men about
whom little is known. What we do
know about them is, in large part,
learned from what is found on
rocks, on the walls of caves in
which they lived and congregated,
and in tombs where the dead were
placed with everything they could
be thought to need on their journey
to the next world. These accounts
of mems deeds are not carefully
written histories, but rather pic
lures on walls, some roughly
drawn, some painted, still others
etched with rude tools. In the
course of centuries picture writing
became conventionalized, and af-
ter many centuries an alphabet de-
veloped from which words could
be made.
Scientists have set the period
when these cave paintings were
made at 10000 years ago, in what
was called the Reindeer Age"
Skillfully and patiently done, the
pictures which may have had some
religious purposes at the time they
were made, tell a tale of great
interest and Importance to us liv-
ing centuries later.
Pictures, then, are the most an
cient means of expressing and
conveying ideas and telling stories.
They were used long before writ
ing of words was invented, and
their use was not abandoned with
that invention. The Egyptians
used conventional writing which
was derived from picture writing
and developed after centuries of
use, but they also put picture
symbol beside the word thus ex-
pressing an idea in two ways,
possibly in order that it might be
understood by those who could not
read the conventionalized form of
words familiar to scholars.
The Greeks carved on their temp
les the stories of their battles, their
heroes and their gods. In COM
menting on a story which was
frequently depicted in Greek sculp-
ture an historian writes that it
had in it the element of cruelty
l1nr 20 tho haa,.fc &C orn;a,oA ,1ao
pies. In this age-old love of cruel
ty, is there a hint of explanation
of the same subject mater in some
comics today?
Moving on many centuries, we
find examples of books made of
pictures rubbed Off from en-
graved blocks of wood linked with
liquid ink. These were called
block-books and were available to
the poor, who since they could not
read words were better served by
having books made of pictures. 1t
is worth noting that original copies
of block-books are rarely found
today because through much use
they were so worn that nothing re-
manned. - "ff
Stained Glass Comics
The stained glass windows in
cathedrals and churches we're moi
only designed to enchance the beau
ty Of the sacred buildings, but they
told the stories of the Bible and Of
the saints to the worshippers. The
rich and powerful were often un'
able to read, and for them the
tapestries which gave color and
warmth to their cold surroundings
also told them stories Of love, OF