Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets The 1900's

Comic Books Come of Age 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:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Feedback on Comic Books Come of Age

Leave your feedback on Comic Books Come of Age   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

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

Copyright © 2025 edHelper