Through a Glass, Darkly – The Revisionist History of Comics By John McShane
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n 1829, a drunken conversation in a London tavern affected our understanding of the history of comics by obfuscating their origins. The obfuscator was one William Heath. Here, for TSWWMFP] XLI ½VWX XMQI IZIV MW XLI XVYI WXSV] SJ The Looking Glass. William Heath was born in 1785 in London. We know little of his earliest years, but by about 1820 he was renowned enough as an artist to be invited by some Glaswegian worthies to paint ‘two or three large panoramas’, including one of the Coronation of George IV. There was, however, a rumour current at the time that Heath was quite willing to leave London because of some debts he had run up. %JXIV TEMRXMRK XLI TERSVEQEW [SVO HMH RSX I\EGXP] ¾SSH MR &] EFSYX 3GXSFIV ,IEXL LEH NSMRIH XLI OMRH SJ GPYF [LMGL LEH FIIR ¾SYVMWLMRK MR GMXMIW WMRGI XLI XMQI SJ XLEX KVIEXIV ;MPPMEQ 1V ;MPPMEQ ,SKEVXL 8LI Glasgow club was called The Cheap and Nasty Club and this place suited Heath down to the ground pigments. There one of his drinking companions was Thomas Hopkirk who owned the lithographic press on which was printed The Glasgow Looking-Glass. ,IEXL [EW MRZMXIH SR FSEVH ERH [EW VIKYPEVP] JIEXYVIH JVSQ MWWYI RYQFIV 8LI ½VWX WXVMT EXXVMFYXIH XS LMQ MW ³0MJI SJ E 7SPHMIV´ FYX MX MW HMJ½GYPX XS WE] [LIXLIV XLMW [EW XLI ½VWX LI HVI[ JSV XLI TIVMSHMGEP WMRGI LI [EW F] JEV the best artist and his style can be seen in other works. In a letter, probably from the 1830s, we are informed that Heath found ‘little encouragement in Glasgow’ and so he ‘left that city and removed to London in 1828, where he is now the most popular caricaturist of the present day’. A note appended to this letter, in the collection of the Mitchell Library, is in the handwriting of Dawson Turner, an art collector. He gives us perhaps the only fully honest account of Heath and explains why Glaswegians may have been disinclined to ‘encourage him’: ‘He is a person of extraordinary talents; but, unfortunately, talents, especially of that kind, and “prudent, cautious WIPJ GSRXVSP² HS RSX EP[E]W KS XSKIXLIV ,IRGI TSSV ,IEXL LEW GSRXMRYEPP] FIIR MR HMJ½GYPXMIW -X [EW SR EGGSYRX of debt that he was obliged to quit Glasgow …’ ;LEX XLIR SJ ,IEXL# 3R E GSPH HEVO HE] MR (IGIQFIV MR E TYF TIVLETW MR ,SKEVXL´W SPH WXSQTMRK KVSYRH of Covent Garden, Heath lifts his third or fourth glass of port and wishes his companion, a printer, good health. Heath has told him of a brilliant and original idea for a periodical containing cartoons and strips to which Heath has given the startlingly original name of – The Looking Glass. But, if Heath only joined The Glasgow Looking-Glass [MXL MWWYI WYVIP] LI WMQTP] GSYPH RSX LEZI MRZIRXIH MX# ;LEX XLIR EVI MXW VIEP SVMKMRW# %RH [L] LEZI XLI] FIIR JSVKSXXIR SV MKRSVIH ¯ YRXMP RS[#
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Our next character in this gripping drama is one Alois Senefelder. Senefelder was the son of an actor from Prague and he was ambitious to publish his own plays. (Presumably not too many established printers were queuing up for options.) He also wanted to print his own etchings, but engraving, the main method at the time JSV VITVSHYGMRK TMGXSVMEP QEXIVMEP [EW VIPEXMZIP] GSWXP] ERH WSQI[LEX HMJ½GYPX XS PIEVR ;LEX XS HS# 3RI ½RI HE] MR [LIR 7IRIJIPHIV [EW E QIVI ]IEVW SPH LI [VSXI E PEYRHV] PMWX [MXL KVIEWI TIRGMP SR some limestone. This may seem a rather eccentric place to put your laundry list, even in those days before PDAs, FYX - GER SRP] GSR½VQ XLEX IGGIRXVMG SV RSX [VMXI MX [MXL KVIEWI TIRGMP SR E TMIGI SJ PMQIWXSRI [EW [LEX LI HMH It then occurred to him to etch away the rest of the surface and leave the grease markings in relief – this could be a simpler method of producing a printing plate! Two years of experiments followed and lithography was born. A printing revolution had begun just before the dawn of a new century. 7IRIJIPHIV [EW EX ½VWX RSX OIIR XS WLEVI LMW HMWGSZIVMIW [MXL XLI [SVPH EX PEVKI -RHIIH WS VIPYGXERX [EW LI XLEX his treatise on lithography did not appear until 1818! This, rather than his plays or his etchings, ensured his place in history. At least one copy of Alois Senefelder’s treatise, Vollstandiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerey (aka Lithography for Dummies) made its way to Glasgow by about 1821, for it was read by the very same Thomas Hopkirk who later became a drinking chum of our old friend, William Heath. Hopkirk was a wealthy native of Dalbeth and a Justice of the Peace with a penchant for the printing trade. Sometime before 1822 he was in the printing business with a man called Cleland, but, whatever happened, by 1823 Cleland had set up on his own as Cleland Lithog in Virginia Street, that marvellous little remnant of the tobacco trade just before Stockwell Street. After splitting up with Cleland, Hopkirk took on a John Watson who seems to have been rather a young man at the time. It was Watson who apparently came up with the idea to use the new lithographic printing technique to produce a fully illustrated periodical. It was also Watson who seems to have called the new periodical The Glasgow Looking-Glass. Hopkirk was very enthusiastic about this new venture and backed his young protĂŠgĂŠ to the hilt. 8LI ½VWX MWWYI ETTIEVIH SR SV EFSYX th .YRI ;LEX MW XLI WMKRM½GERGI SJ XLMW HEXI XS XLI LMWXSV] SJ GSQMGW# 4VIZMSYW LMWXSVMIW SJ XLMW X]TI SJ TYFPMGEXMSR FIKMR [MXL Punch, but this was not published until 1841, some 16 years later. Indeed a reprint of The Glasgow Looking-Glass from 1905 calls our favourite magazine ‘The Scotch PUNCH’. More knowledgeable commentators have referred to The Monthly Sheet of Caricatures, but this was not published until 1830. Americans, who, of course, invented everything, boast about Puck, Judge, and Life which were products of the 1880s and their esteemed Yellow Kid is even more recent. Even Goethe’s favourite GSQMG WXVMT EVXMWX 6YHSPTL 8STJJIV HMH RSX TYFPMWL LMW ½VWX FSSO YRXMP XLI WEQI ]IEV EW Punch. Denis +MJJSVH XLI GSQMGW LMWXSVMER [EW TVSFEFP] XLI ½VWX TIVWSR XS HIGPEVI UYMXI GPIEVP] MR TVMRX XLEX The Glasgow Looking-Glass [EW XLI ½VWX SJ MXW OMRH ERH MX [EW (IRMW LMQWIPJ [LS IRGSYVEKIH ]SYV TVIWIRX LMWXSVMER XS HIPZI deeper into why it has been overlooked. Let us have a brief look at the publication history of this seminal publication. In 1825, Glasgow was a growing city of about 200,000 souls, many of them, to be sure, puir sawls, struggling to eke out a meagre existence, but some of them rich urban sophisticates who had made their fortunes in Glasgow and prided themselves in the minutiae of civic knowledge. It was to the latter audience that John Watson aimed The Glasgow Looking-Glass. In single-panel cartoons or strips, comments would be made on taste, on shipping, on new inventions, and, of course, on politicians. According to the following ‘News and Reviews’ from Glasgow News of December 23rd 1905, The Glasgow LookingGlass Âł[EW TVSFEFP] XLI ½VWX MPPYWXVEXIH TETIV TYFPMWLIH MR XLMW GMX] Š -X [EW E PMXLSKVETLIH JSYV TEKI WLIIX SJ pictures, with very little letterpress, and appeared fortnightly. Its publisher was John Watson, 169 George Street ‌’ The Glasgow Looking-Glass [EW [IPP IRSYKL XLSYKLX SJ ]IEVW EJXIV MX ½VWX ETTIEVIH XS FI [SVXL XLI reprint of which that quote was the start of a review. 8LI [SVHW Âł8S &I 'SRXMRYIH´ E QEMRWXE] SJ WIVMEP GSQMG WXVMTW XS XLI TVIWIRX HE] ½VWX ETTIEVW EW IEVP] EW MWWYI no 2 (June 25th 1825), after the last panel of ‘Series of Occasional Essays on Taste’. This was not really what we
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would call a comic strip since the pictures are only thematically linked, rather than temporally, but by issue 4 we have Part First of ‘History of a Coat’, a proper comic strip of eight panels laid out double-columned with – what IPWI# ¯ ³8S &I 'SRXMRYIH´ EX XLI IRH 2YQFIV WIIW XLI TETIV´W ½VWX QENSV GLERKI IHMXSVMEPP] EW MX ³IQFVEGIH WYFNIGXW SJ QSVI 2EXMSREP MRXIVIWX and the title was changed to The Northern Looking Glass’, as it says on the inside cover of the hardbound 1905 VITVMRX ;L] XLI REQI GLERKI# 7SQI LEZI XLSYKLX MX GEQI JVSQ ,IEXL WYKKIWXMRK XS ,STOMVO XLEX XLI WGSTI be broadened, but Heath did not contribute drawings for another three months, and so if he were involved this IEVP] [L] XLI HIPE]# 4IVLETW LI LEH RSXLMRK XS HS [MXL XLI REQI GLERKI EX EPP 8LI IHMXSVMEP MR RS MRXVSHYGIW itself to an Edinburgh audience as follows: ‘Our worthy Publisher Mr Watson has given us various hints that some reason should be assigned … for the partial change in the appellation … in this our Whimsical Lithographic News-Paper … Perhaps we are proud of the praise which has been bestowed upon us, and feel desirous of allowing the Legal as well as the Manufactory capital a participation in the literary consequence which our leafy honours must have brought up the latter ¯ 4IVLETW [I LEZI JSYRH XLEX E 4VSTLIX LEW QSVI LSRSV UYIVI 4VS½X MR ER] SXLIV XS[R XLER LMW S[R ©´ Well, we have never argued that the publication was famous or important because of its writers – it is remembered for its artwork, after all – but the gist is that you can always make more money if you increase the potential size of your audience. The name change seems to be nothing to do with Heath and everything to do [MXL TVS½X %JXIV EPP MX ETTIEVW XLEX TSSV SP´ MKRSVIH .SLR ;EXWSR HMH KS SYX SJ FYWMRIWW EJXIV E JI[ ]IEVW IZIR before the death of Hopkirk in 1835. Enough of this sad stuff! At last we get to the brilliant and revolutionary issue no 10. Heath’s ‘Life of a Soldier’ has three panels and panel one cleverly folds out to extend the width of the page. It is better drawn than most of the previous Looking-Glass content and even has, you guessed it, ‘To Be Continued’ at the end. But, by far the most revolutionary strip in no 10 is the wonderful ‘Life of an Actress’. Paul Gravett has recently reprinted this in his Great British Comics ;LIR ]SYV GYVVIRX EYXLSV ½VWX WLS[IH MX XS LMQ LI EKVIIH XLEX MXW WX]PI is reminiscent of the great comics innovator Will Eisner – from 150 years later. The panels of ‘Life of an Actress’ are laid out on an old rickety wooden ladder as a visual metaphor for the fragility of fame. Lest the purists among you feel that a comic strip must have word balloons, a very modern-looking example is ‘Kean in America’ from number 13. Another modern style strip is ‘My House in Town’ from no 20; this is a 20 panel tour-de-force with all the panels enclosed in a house, a joy to behold at its original page dimensions of 16in x 11in. The original run lasted 17 issues until April 1826. The following month saw the New Series of Northern Looking Glass, numbered again from no 1. Sadly this only had one more issue in June 1826. There have been various reprints since, but these 19 issues at their time had no peers. Lest you feel that we have unjustly neglected our Mr William Heath, allow us to take up his story from where [I PIJX SJJ ,I MW RS[ SR LMW WM\XL SV WIZIRXL KPEWW SJ TSVX ERH LEW ½RMWLIH SYXPMRMRK LMW TPERW JSV LMW RI[ publication, The Looking Glass. -X ½REPP] ETTIEVIH ,IEXL LEZMRK WSFIVIH YT IRSYKL XS HVE[ MX JVSQ GSZIV XS GSZIV SR .ERYEV] st (never a special date south of the border) 1830, ‘Drawn and Etched by William Heath – Author of the Northern Looking Glass – Paul Prys Caricatures – and various humorous works.’ No mention in this issue 1 blurb of any preHeath publication – puir John Watson! Heath’s periodical disappeared about June 1st 1830 with issue no 6. And TSSV SPH HMWWSPYXI ,IEXL ½REPP] PEMH LMW TIR XS VIWX EKIH MR ,I [EW FYVMIH MR ,EQTWXIEH RIZIV EKEMR reaching the heights of glory he achieved in Glasgow. But Heath had convinced everyone that all these publications were his idea. Strang, in Glasgow and its Clubs TYFPMWLIH MR WE]W ³XLEX XLI ½VWX MHIE SJ The Northern Looking Glass was formed by Heath and Hopkirk who owned the press at which it was lithographed’! No mention of John Watson. No mention of The Glasgow LookingGlass. %RH XLI VIEWSR IZIR LMWXSVMER (IRMW +MJJSVH GSYPH RSX ½RH The Glasgow Looking-Glass MR XLI &VMXMWL 1YWIYQ# They have it listed as ‘Heath’s Comic Looking Glass or Mirror of Mirth exhibiting an entertaining series of nearly
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four hundred humorous caricatures and burlesque sketches’. No mention of the other artists who went before him on this pioneering venture. Their names have long been forgotten through neglect. 182 years later, let us set the record straight: Londoner William Heath was a great artist who should be remembered for what he did. But John Watson was XLI SVMKMREXSV SJ [LEX MW XLI ½VWX VIKYPEV GSQMG QEKE^MRI MR XLI [SVPH The Glasgow Looking-Glass. Time for a plaque to one of Glasgow’s greatest sons.
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