I think if British illustrator John Archibald Austen (1886-1948) had been living a few decades later, in the second half of the 20th century, today he would probably be known as a brilliant graphic novel artist. To back up my theory, I think it’s enough to take a close look at one of his earlier works, a black-and-white illustrated version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, published in 1922 by Selwyn & Blount in London.
Hamlet and the Ghost -Shakespeare's Hamlet illustrations by John Austen