Rod McKie Illustrations and Cartoons: The origins of the Graphic Novel

You can decide for yourself whether or not the roots of the graphic novel were planted in India sometime between 1628 to 1653.
Pages from one of the most gorgeous and lavishly illustrated manuscripts of its time, the Sanskrit epic, The Ramayana, were put on display by the British Library.
Some four volumes of this masterpiece, were given to Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod, the Scottish-born historian of the ancient Hindu royal warrior clan the Rajputs; by Rana Bhim Singh of Mewar. Colonel Tod took the volumes back to London with him in 1823, where they were acquired by the British Museum, which later gifted the volumes to the British Library. Since 1844, until now, they have been hidden away, stored in bound volumes, and made accessible only to scholars. Cartoons and illustrations for Playboy, The Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest(USA), Prospect (UK), Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, The Phoenix (Ire), National Lampoon, Marian Heath Greeting Cards, and various publications worldwide. ...