The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, which is recognized as the earliest American comic book, has been reprinted in Italy. The limited edition - only 1,000 were made - reprints material first published in 1842.

Artist Rodolphe Töpffer's rollicking slapstick adventure of Obadiah Oldbuck and his pursuit of his (mostly) unrequited love is a compelling narrative that will surprise most modern readers with its complexity and cleverness.

While many of the earliest comics are hard to recognize as what we would today consider to be a comic book, this example is far different. With panel-to-panel storytelling that integrates words and pictures to achieve a greater degree of storytelling possible than with either component on their own, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck is an impressive indication of what can be done with the medium. That it was done so long ago, though, may redefine for many the history of the art form.

Comics dealer and historian Robert Beerbohm lead the charge in the discovery and documentation of the work, and was interviewed for this re-publication by Edzioni Napoli COMICON, the concern that published the reprint. And while the interview is in Italian, the story itself is presented in its entirety in English.

In this edition of Scoop and over the next three weeks, we'll be presenting the full story The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. Click the images below to see the story.

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