Adolphe Wilmette

…the heirs to Busch were Adolphe Willette and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, both pioneers in Le Chat Noir (“The Black Cat”)—house magazine of the world’s first cabaret—of the wordless, or “silent,” strip (first employed by Busch). Willette created a black-clad Pierrot, a volatile, poetic, and amoral trickster (1882–84), and Steinlen specialized in…