Whatever Frost's intent, it is worth conducting investigations such as these to detect the evolution of devices specific to the printed page. The evidence that close attention might bear fruit is right there on the book's cover, reconstituted by Chris Ware from the graphic elements of Frost's original "Stuff and Nonsense" album. At first glance, images and title banners sit atop a sort of marbelized background pattern. Upon closer inspection, each marbelized spot is actually a miniature face, with features frozen in an expression: shock, worry, anger, joy. Consciously or not, coincidentally or not, the pictographic features recall Töpffer's own doodled facial expressions, analyzed at length in his "Essay on Physiognomy." Similarly, if one looks closely at Frost's work, one can find traces and seeds of innovations towards the development of a distinctly "comics" form.

Faces by Töpffer

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