In 1964, Marshall McLuhan astutely called MAD, which first appeared in 1952, “a kind of newspaper mosaic of the ad as entertainment, and entertainment as a form of madness.”

An interesting history, though he skips "Dark Knight," [broke graphic novels into the mainstream]; Osamu Tezuka [granddaddy of manga - I read once that in Japan more paper is used for comix than toilet paper]; and Mobius [heir to Herge.]