Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Reading Comprehension Worksheets
The 1900's
Comic Books Come of Age

The 1900's
The 1900's


Comic Books Come of Age
Print Comic Books Come of Age Reading Comprehension with Sixth Grade Work

Print Comic Books Come of Age Reading Comprehension


Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.92

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    Outcault, dialogue, breakthrough, best, popularity, successful, merchandise, description, advantage, lasted, comic, editor, member, produce, connection, rage
     content words:    Obadiah Oldbuck, Rudophe Topffer, Palmer Cox, Brownies Ride, Their Book, New York World, Richard F., York World, New York City, Yellow Kid


Comic Books Come of Age
By Jane Runyon
  

1     Comic books have been around for a long time. The earliest illustrated book resembling a comic book was published in 1837. The name of this book was The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. This first book of comic pictures was put together by a man named Rudophe Topffer in Switzerland. He had been drawing single panel comic pictures since 1827. At this time in history, Topffer's books were known as picture stories. He drew a single picture and then wrote a description of what was happening in the picture below it. Topffer created a total of seven such picture books. Copies of his stories reached America in 1846.
 
2     Other cartoon creators followed Topffer's lead. A children's magazine became popular in America during the 1880s. It was called St. Nicholas. Palmer Cox created an illustrated feature for this magazine called "The Brownies." The first story, called "The Brownies Ride", appeared in the magazine in 1883. Children loved this feature. Publishers of the magazine decided to take advantage of the Brownies' popularity. They manufactured a line of Brownie merchandise that could be purchased by the readers. In 1887, several of the Brownie stories were published together as a book. It was called The Brownies: Their Book. Descriptions and dialogue for these stories were written to the side of the picture. It was a book, and it did have comics in it. But it wasn't really considered to be a comic book.
 
3     Other magazines of the time began to use picture stories. They weren't always designed for children. Magazines such as Puck, Judge, Life, Truth, and Harper's took advantage of the popular story form. Newspapers wanted to run comics in their daily editions. Unfortunately, all the best known illustrators had already signed up with the magazines. Luckily, a Sunday editor for the New York World, America's largest newspaper at the time, and a member of the Puck magazine staff, found an answer. He knew Richard F. Outcault. His first newspaper cartoon appeared in the New York World on June 2, 1894. This comic picture featured a group of children in New York City. One of the characters in this cartoon would later become a very popular comic character called The Yellow Kid. Outcault also introduced the idea of the comic balloon. Now words that were spoken by the characters appeared in balloon shapes above their heads. In 1897, a book of comic pictures called The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats was published. It was 196 pages long and cost a whopping 50 cents. All of the pictures were black and white.

Paragraphs 4 to 5:
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The 1900's
             The 1900's


United States
             United States


    American Government  
 
    Black History and Blacks in U.S. History  
 
    Children in History  
 
    Government Careers  
 
    Hispanic Heritage  
 
    How Can I Help?  
 
 
    Immigration  
 
    National Parks and Monuments  
 
    Native Americans  
 
    Presidents of the United States  
 
    Women's History  
 


United States History
    A Nation Divided
(1840-1861)
 
 
    A New Nation
(1776-1830)
 
 
    After the Civil War
(1865-1870)
 
 
    American Revolution  
 
    Cold War
(1947-1991)
 
 
    Colonial America (1492-1776)  
 
    Lewis and Clark
(1804-1806)
 
 
    Pearl Harbor  
 
    Spanish American War (1898)  
 
    The 1890's  
 
    The 1900's  
 
    The 1910's  
 
    The 1920's  
 
    The 1930's  
 
 
    The 1940's  
 
    The 1950's  
 
    The 1960's  
 
    The 1970's  
 
    The 1980's  
 
    The 1990's  
 
    The 2000's  
 
    The Civil War
(1861-1865)
 
 
    The Great Depression
(1929-1945)
 
 
    The United States Grows
(1865-1900)
 
 
    The War of 1812  
 
    Wild, Wild West  
 
    World War I
(1914-1918)
 
 
    World War II  
 


50 States

             Fifty States Theme Unit


Document Based Activities
      Document Based Activities



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