Histoire de Mr. Pencil

TOPFFER, Rodolphe (1799-1846). "Histoire de Mr. Pencil." Paris: Librairie de Garnier Freres, Rue des St. Peres, 6. Imp. E. Dufrenoy, 49, Rue du Montparnasse. Autographie a Geneve par Topffer. Lithographie de Caillet, 1860. Does not have the 1923 imprint on p. 72. "Pensil" on the covers is a misspelling, not seen on the two titles. French language. Oblong quarto. 6 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches. 146 pp. printed recto and numbered 2-72. Title, then second title with preface. Publisher's red cloth boards dye-stamped black and gold with black arabesque pattern and gilt cartouche of the title and scene from the book, title stamped gilt on spine, blue endpapers with all edges gilt, stamp of 19th-century book collector B. B. De Montenegro at the Chateau des Nouettes in Aube, France, on title. Of all Topffer’s picture-stories, "Monsieur Pencil" bears the clearest imprint of the July 1830 revolution in France. The manuscript was executed between March and July 1831, and although lacking an ending, was soon circulated among his inner circle of readers - his young pupils. [Kunzle] However, "Pencil" remained unpublished, and it wasn’t until 1840, after major revisions to Topffer's reactionary political agenda did it see the light of day. In this new form, Topffer’s inventiveness reached greater heights, with the superb and surreal slapstick escapades of M. Jolibois trapped inside of a crate. But "Pencil" starts in a meta mode with Monsieur Pencil standing in as a proxy for Topffer, and all artists, vacuously admiring his own artwork, viewing it from every possible angle with a huge smile: "Mr. Pencil, who is an artist, draws from nature. Mr. Pencil, who is an artist, looks complacently at what he has drawn, and remarks that he is happy with it. Mr. Pencil, who is an artist, notices that even upside down he is happy with the drawing too. And even so while looking over his shoulder." Chris Ware writes the following of that opening sequence and Topffer's prescient use of comics grammar: "One of the fundamental tools of comics is the wordless re-creation of the rhythms of human gesture, most easily accomplished by maintaining a fixed scale of character from one panel to the next, so that the only changes the eye registers are in the variations of posture between the repeating figures. Topffer uses this device frequently, especially on the opening page of “Mr. Pencil," in which the main character, an artist, admires his own work, trotting around and coyly glancing at it from various viewpoints. Even without the explanatory text, the figure seems to come alive on the page, the rhythm of his actions revealing his self-satisfaction." One page and back hinge strengthened with Japanese tissue. Back board with light spotting. Bottom joint of spine starting. Light foxing as usual. References: Blondel and Mirabaud, pp. 378-379. Callier 29. Kunzle, "Father of the Comic Strip," p. 83. Lonchamp 2967. Quentin and Forgeot 35. Relave, pp. 42, 44. Ware, "Strip Mind," Bookforum, April 2008.