Les Tâtonnements de Jean Bidoux dans la carrière militaire

In 1861, the French publisher Martinet launched this single-issue comic following the bumbling military career of Jean Bidoux, a hapless recruit whose misadventures are rendered with gentle satire by the celebrated caricaturist Amédée de Noé, better known as Cham. As an early example of the comic strip format in France, it offers a charming, historically significant glimpse into 19th-century humor and the visual storytelling techniques that would influence the medium for generations.