Herge was not the first to create comic art. There were many artists who came before him. They all played a part in the evolution of the comic strip as we know it today. But, where did it all really begin?
You could say that the idea of using pictures to tell a story originated in the cave paintings of prehistoric tribes and Egyptian hieroglyphics inside the Great Pyramids.
The modern comic book is at least as old as the movies. Richard Fenton Outcault's "The Yellow Kid," which debuted in The New York World in 1896, is generally credited as the first comic strip. It was a serial, single-panel comic featuring a sort of aged baby on whose sacklike yellow garment were printed words that he presumably spoke or thought. This was the first use of the text balloon, and "The Yellow Kid" became the blueprint on which succeeding comic art was based.