Long before comic strips and graphic novels, one English artist told stories in a series of pictures.

William Hogarth died in London on October 26, 1764. He was famous for "modern moral subjects": painting and engraving sequences such as "A Harlot's Progress," "A Rake's Progress" and "Marriage A-la-Mode" that satirized the vices and follies of 18th-century society.

Frustrated by pirated copies of his prints, he campaigned for a law protecting engravers. The 1735 Engraving Copyright Act, often called "Hogarth's Act," became an early milestone in artists' rights.

If Hogarth were alive today, what would he satirize?

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