Vanity Fair, Vol. 6, No. 132

This penny dreadful's cover announces Victor Hugo's Hans of Iceland serialization while spotlighting George D. Prentice, a Louisville journalist. The cover features woodcut portraiture typical of Victorian sensation publications. Penny dreadfuls like Vanity Fair cost mere pennies, making sensational narratives accessible to a broad readership. These weekly serials, combining woodcut illustrations with melodramatic plots, established the visual-narrative format that evolved into modern comic books: episodic storytelling, dynamic page layouts, and the marriage of image to text for maximum dramatic effect.