David Kunzle, 1936-2024

Kunzle in 1967.

David Kunzle, one of the founding fathers of comics scholarship, passed away January 1 at the age of 87. The Center for the Study of Political Graphics describes Kunzle as a true Renaissance Man, “both literally and figuratively,” noting his life as a political activist, art historian, full professor at UCLA, actor, curator, international lecturer, poster collector, and writer.

Kunzle is best known to scholars for his illustrated comics histories and biographies of the 19th century European artists who created foundational works that were direct antecedents of the modern comic strip. His fascination with that era began during his childhood in Birmingham, England, when he discovered a book of Hogarth engravings left behind by a long-deceased uncle who had amassed an interesting and diverse collection of books to help pass the time during his convalescence from polio.

“Hogarth opened up all the mysteries of life which had and would continue to be occluded by authorities at home and at school; sex, death, cruelty; a grim, raucous, tawdry sort of vitality, and lust combined with beauty (so well embodied in the Harlot of Hogarth’s Progress), said Kunzle in his autobiographical essay “Kunzle and the Comic Strip,” written for the Spring 2003 edition of the International Journal of Comics Art. “This book, laid and devoured on the floor—my immersions in which were never (I marvel in retrospect) intruded upon, as if my family sensed (but I doubt it) that this was for me a sacred, intensely private experience—sowed the germ of that enduring fascination with realistic, narrative art which would subtend my research in the various directions it has taken ever since.”

Title page to Kunzle's landmark The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825, the first of two volumes in his History of the Comic Strip published by the University of California Press.

Kunzle’s fascination with comics and narrative art guided him through his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge, where he majored in French and German literature. He built upon that work with a graduate degree at the Courtauld Institute in the History of Art. It was at Courtauld that he had a fortuitous meeting with Ernst Gombrich, director of the Warburg Institute, who would mentor Kunzle, advising him and encouraging his studies in 19th century comic art. Kunzle credits Gombrich with the suggestion that he write his graduate thesis on the development of the picture story, antecedent of the modern comic strip, from William Hogarth to Rodolphe Töpffer.

The ambitious Kunzle traveled throughout Europe for the firsthand study of artist folios during his graduate studies, research that laid the groundwork for his groundbreaking illustrated biographies and collected editions celebrating these foundational artists. Upon earning his Ph.D. in 1964, Kunzle moved to the United States to study at UC Santa Barbara on a Fellowship from the just-founded National Endowment for the Humanities - earning the enmity of a Congressman from Missouri who singled out Kunzle’s study of comic strips as the epitome of wasteful government spending. The ensuing “storm in a teacup” resulted in a flurry of news stories and debates, and culminated in a front-page headline in the Los Angeles Times, much to Kunzle’s amusement.

Kunzle’s work as a translator included How to Read Donald Duck, an influential 1971 critique of the imperialist and anti-social character of the Disney duck comics by Ariel Dorfman & Armand Matterlart, first published in Chile.

In 1973, the University of California Press published the first volume of Kunzle’s seminal work The History of the Comic Strip, titled The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825. His official profile from the Dictionary of Art Historians cites the publication of this volume as a turning point in his career and in comics scholarship itself. Over the next five decades, he established himself as one of the founding fathers of comics scholarship, and his lectureships at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia from 1972 to 1975 further cemented his reputation as one of the foremost experts in his field. The prolific author flourished in the 1970s, producing his own works for the university press and translating others, including Ariel Dorfman’s and Armand Mattelart’s 1973 Para leer al pato Donald in 1975 as How to Read Donald Duck, which the Dictionary of Art Historians cites as “a stunning indictment of the pervasiveness of Capitalism (‘Imperialism’ to use the authors’ phrase) through innocuous cartoon imagery.” History of the Comic Strip, Volume II: The Nineteenth Century was published by the University of California Press in 1990.

Kunzle taught at UCLA as a Professor of Art History from 1976 until his 2009 retirement, a career that allowed and encouraged his study of 19th century cartooning. Although he specialized in writing about 19th century humorists, he produced a number of popular books on revolutionary politics, including From Criminal to Courtier: The Soldier in Netherlandish Art 1550-1670 (Brill, 2002); Fashion and Fetishism: A Social History of the Corset, Tight-Lacing and Other Forms of Body-Sculpture in the West (‎Rowman & Littlefield, 1982; revised edition Sutton Publishing Ltd., 2004); and Chesucristo: The Fusion in Image and Word of Che Guevara and Jesus Christ (De Gruyter, 2016).

Among Kunzle’s later works was Cham: The Best Comic Strips and Graphic Novelettes, 1839–1862 (University Press of Mississippi, 2019), contextualizing and translating picture stories from the oeuvre of Charles Amédée de Noé, a 19th century caricaturist.

But Kunzle’s reputation among comics scholars will forever be defined by his scholarship and celebration of the European masters of the 19th century including Töpffer, Gustave Doré, and Cham, whose works might otherwise have faded into obscurity. Kunzle’s books, including Rebirth of the English Comic Strip: A Kaleidoscope, 1847-1870 (University Press of Mississippi, 2021); Cham: The Best Comic Strips and Graphic Novelettes, 1839–1862 (University Press of Mississippi, 2019); Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Töpffer (University Press of Mississippi, 2007); Gustave Doré: Twelve Comic Strips (University Press of Mississippi, 2015); and Rodolphe Töpffer: The Complete Comic Strips (University Press of Mississippi, 2007), are essential volumes in comics scholarship, and Kunzle’s knowledge and enthusiasm for the medium came through in every publication.

Quoted in a blurb on the back of Rebirth of the English Comic Strip: A Kaleidoscope, 1847-1870, cartoonist and historian Mike Lynch said, “Just paging through his work, and seeing all of those illustrated comics from the 1800s, was amazing. Reading his text, he put it all in context. The 1800s didn't all begin and end with Töpffer. Citing the simultaneous boom in education, faster printing and an emerging middle class with some extra money to spend, he was a guide to a wealth of early printed comics that were part of regular reading. This was a wider world of graphic narrative than I ever imagined. His research and copious samples of comic stories was impactful and will be remembered.”

Comics historian Jim Thompson told TCJ, “Having served two terms on the Eisner Hall of Fame selection committee, I find it impossible to exaggerate the importance of those books in studying and assessing early comic pioneers like Rudolphe Töpffer, Count Charles Amédée de Noé (Cham), and Ally Sloper’s Marie Duvall. Kunzle wasn’t simply a resource for me, he was more like a presence, a voice in my ear, during the Hall of Fame selection processes. I’d add that it has always been quite a charming presence too, due to the informality and clarity of his words. My thoughts at his passing are that Kunzle’s contributions to the study of comics’ earliest creators warrant more than a thank you; they are so significant that his own name could and should rest next to those pioneers’ as a key contributor to the field and form of comics.”

Kunzle passed away following a three-year battle with amyloidosis. He is survived by his wife and longtime partner, Marjoyrie, and an indelible legacy that will live on through his incomparable bibliography and a body of research beloved and treasured by comics scholars, fans, and historians.

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