The Glasgow Looking Glass

The Glasgow Looking Glass, later retitled The Northern Looking Glass, was a Scottish fortnightly lithographic periodical published in Glasgow from June 1825 to April 1826, often cited as an early candidate for the world's first comic.

History

The periodical was founded by English satirical cartoonist William Heath, who had fled London to escape debts, in partnership with lithographic printer Thomas Hopkirk and print manager John Watson. It was retitled The Northern Looking Glass from its sixth issue to reflect broader Scottish, not just Glasgow, content, and ran for 19 issues before ceasing in April 1826.

Significance

Its fourth issue, "History of a Coat," following a garment's journey across three sequential episodes with speech balloons, is cited as an early true comic strip. The periodical combined political satire, social commentary, and humor, and used mass-produced lithography to reach a wide readership. Historians largely overlooked the publication until the late 20th century, with earlier scholarship favoring later French work such as Rodolphe Töpffer's as the first comic.

See also

• History of the British comic
• Rodolphe Töpffer
• Comic strip