Six Stages of Marring a Face

Thomas Rowlandson’s single-issue comic from 1792, published by Fores, is a grotesque and satirical series of six panels depicting the progressive disfigurement of a man’s face through drink and debauchery. As both writer and artist, Rowlandson brings his signature caricature style to this moralizing yet darkly humorous visual cautionary tale. Though brief, it stands as an early example of sequential comic storytelling in British print culture.