The origins of comic book are traced back to prehistoric cave paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphics (writings). The meanings and symbolism behind these images translated a language or something to read to understand. By drawing the connection to hieroglyphic meanings and that they had to be read like we read books now-a-days, it only makes sense that western culture would have to insert our form of writing along with our symbols of meaning (for example, a person) to have our comics be relevant to us.
Text insertion can be widely attributed to the first publicized comic strip, “The Yellow Kid” in 1896. Richard Fenton Outcalt was the one who created it but was not the first to have the idea of comic strips. He made comics popular and introduced the word bubble that contains the characters words and leads to their mouth with a tail.
Timeline:
1827-
Rudolph Töpffer - Birth of the Graphic Novel
Switzerland's Rudolphe Töpffer created a comic strip and continued on to publish seven graphic novels.
1842-
"The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck" became the first comic book published in the United States.
1859-
German poet and artist, Wilhelm Bush published caricatures in the newspaper Fliegende Blätter.
1865-
Wilhelm Bush published a famous comic called "Max und Moritz".
1895-
"Yellow Kid" created by Richard Outcault has often been cited as being the first comic strip.
References: http://www.ask.com/bar?q=origins+of+comic+books&page=1&qsrc=0&ab=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Finventors.about.com%2Fod%2Fcstartinventions%2Fa%2Fcomics.htm
