History In 1887, Canadian illustrator Palmer Cox published " The Brownies, Their Book" about imaginary little sprites resembling the popular house spirits of Celtic folklore, who inhabit houses and aid in tasks in return for small gifts of food. Cox's Brownies were little men drawn to represent many professions and nationalities who had mischievous adventures together. This series of humorous verse books and comic strips about kind-hearted pixies soon became incredibly popular and were considered the first commercial comic books, the characters of which were used in advertisements for over 40