III.

Pictorial Parody

The meaning of the word cartoon changed in the 1840s, when Prince Albert, who wanted to decorate the walls of the new Houses of Parliament in London with frescoes, opened a competition for their design. The cartoons for the frescoes, some of them absurd in their attempts to appear heroic, were exhibited in 1843 and parodied shortly thereafter in the English magazine Punch, thus earning the word cartoon its modern definition of a humorous or satirical drawing. The panel, a single drawing contained within a box-shaped outline, is the fundamental building block of all modern cartoons.

A.

Types of Cartoons

Depending on their purpose, most cartoons fall into one of several different categories: editorial cartoons, gag cartoons, illustrative cartoons, comic strips, and animated cartoons.

A.1.

Editorial Cartoons

Editorial cartoons, also referred to as political cartoons, serve as a visual commentary on current events. Usually satirical rather than merely humorous in nature, they may communicate the political viewpoint of the cartoonist or add depth to an editorial opinion article in a newspaper or magazine. Editorial cartoons often use caricature, a deliberate distortion or exaggeration of a person’s features, to make fun of well-known figures (often politicians). These cartoons can play a significant part in swaying public opinion. Illustrators who gained fame for their political and editorial cartooning include English artist William Hogarth, French artist Honoré Daumier, Australian-born artist Patrick Oliphant, New Zealand-born artist David Low, and American artists Thomas Nast, Boardman Robinson, Bill Mauldin, Jeff MacNelly, and Mike Luckovich.

A.2.

Gag Cartoons

In gag cartoons—which consist of a single panel and are often accompanied by a caption, usually placed outside the panel—characters appear only once, rather than recurring as in other types of cartoons (see below). Gag cartoons usually make fun of groups of people rather than lampooning individuals. They are often found in magazines, such as the New Yorker, and on greeting cards. Well-known gag cartoonists include Americans James Thurber, Charles Addams, and Peter Arno.

A.3.

Illustrative Cartoons

Illustrative cartoons are used in conjunction with advertising or learning materials. They illuminate important points, highlight special aspects of a new product, or give visual representations of processes to reinforce an advertisement or educational text. Sometimes, existing cartoon characters are used in advertising. For example, the characters in the comic strip “Peanuts” (see below), drawn by American Charles Schulz, began to appear in life insurance advertisements in 1985. Other well-known original cartoon characters used in American advertisements include Toucan Sam (for Froot Loops cereal) and the Jolly Green Giant (for Green Giant Foods).

A.4.

Comic Strips and Books

A comic strip, or comic, is a sequence of cartoons that tells a story. Often but not always humorous, comics usually chronicle the lives of recurring characters, and sometimes humor arises from the reader's familiarity with a particular character. Dialogue is usually present in balloons, as encircled words issuing from a character's mouth within the panels of the cartoon. Each comic strip may recount a self-contained episode, as in “Peanuts” (1950-2000) or “Cathy” (1976- ); or it may contain part of a continuing story. The latter technique is common in adventure, detective, or dramatic strips, such as “Prince Valiant” (1937- ), “Flash Gordon” (1934- ), “Apartment 3-G” (1961- ), or “Dick Tracy” (1931- ). Comic books, which either present one long story line or consist of a collection of separate comic strips (usually previously published), are popular worldwide. Well-known examples include American superhero series, such as “Batman” (1939- ), “Superman” (1938- ), and “The Amazing Spider-Man” (1962- ); the humorous historical series “Asterix” (1959-1980) from France; or the children’s comedy classic “Doraemon” (1974-1996) and the science-fiction series “Akira” (1982-1990) from Japan (see Comics).

A.5.

Animated Cartoons

Animation is the process of recording a series of incremental drawings and then playing it back to create the illusion of continuous motion. Animation toys, such as flipbooks, have been used for centuries, while film animation was introduced as a cartoon genre at the beginning of the 20th century, with the invention of motion pictures. In the United States, animation is most often humorous or tells adventure stories, as in television cartoons shown on Saturday mornings. Animated cartoons have also been popular for use in television advertisements (see Animation).

B.

Creating and Publishing Cartoons

Cartooning is an art form that, like any other, stems from creative inspiration as well as context. Cartoonists work in a different way from their sources, and each tries to develop a unique style. Editorial cartoonists pay close attention to current events, significant issues, and influential politicians in order to create their cartoons. Illustrative cartoonists work from editorial materials, educational texts, and advertising materials, illustrating their important or most interesting points. Most cartoonists sketch out their ideas in pencil, erasing and reworking the images and wording, if appropriate, until they feel ready to draw a finished product.

B.1.

Techniques

Beginning in the mid-15th century cartoons were produced using the techniques of woodcut, etching, and engraving. In the 19th century, both lithographic and wood-engraving processes were used (see Prints and Printmaking), for cartoons that appeared in magazines. The development of photographic printing techniques in the 20th century facilitated the task of the cartoonist and printer. In particular, advances in printing technology since the 1960s have enabled more cartoonists to work in color, by rendering it more affordable and accessible.

Today, the most common tool of the cartoonist is the nibbed dip pen, designed to be dipped in a bottle of ink. The detachable nib (sharpened point) is available in varying line widths and degrees of flexibility, allowing the cartoonist to draw lines that can be modulated further by the use of a brush and ink. Many cartoonists like to experiment with a variety of other pens, such as felt-tip or mechanical pens.

Some cartoonists work exclusively with line drawings, while others like to use shading, which can be achieved in various ways. Crosshatching uses interlaced parallel lines of different densities to indicate form and the effects of light and shadow. Stipple, or patterns of dots, can be used in a similar way to create shading. Grayscale overlays, which consist of dots or lines in varying sizes and densities, accomplish the same purpose. Traditionally, grayscale was created by cutting and pasting ready-made sheets of dots onto a drawing, but computers are now able to overlay the patterns quickly and easily.

A handful of cartoonists draws entirely on computers. Using digitizing pads, which employ a pressure-sensitive stylus to mimic the line of any kind of dip pen or brush, these cartoonists create their drawings on video screens, saving them in the computer’s memory. These cartoons may be printed on paper or published electronically.

B.2.

Distribution

In the United States today, a few large syndicates such as United Feature Syndicate, Inc. or Universal Press Syndicate dominate the mainstream distribution of cartoons and comic strips. Syndicates buy the rights to cartoons, usually as a series, and then sell them to publications. Most syndicated comic strips appear in 100 to 200 daily newspapers, and a few appear in more than 1,000 papers. Comic strips and their recurring characters may also appear on shirts, calendars, coffee mugs, and other merchandise. Nonsyndicated cartoonists sell their cartoons one at a time, most often to magazines. Over time, larger bodies of work by cartoonists can lead to the publication of collections of cartoons as books.

Apart from major newspapers, which feature editorial cartoons and pages of comics, and certain national general-interest magazines, there are numerous magazines covering special interests—such as hunting, gardening, or automobiles—that print cartoons relating to that interest. Other cartoon publishers include small, politically-oriented newspapers, designed to appeal to a specific viewpoint; specialized humor magazines, such as The National Lampoon; and magazines whose entire editorial content consists of cartoons, such as Funny Times. Cartoons may also be used in greeting cards, or they may be distributed through a cartoon bank, where large numbers of cartoons are scanned into a computer and made available to any publisher seeking a cartoon relating to a particular theme.

C.

Historical Roots

Although ancient and medieval artists produced various forms of comic art, it was the invention of printing in Europe in the mid-15th century that made it possible to mass-distribute the types of drawings now referred to as cartoons. About the time of the Protestant Reformation (16th century) in Germany, cartoons, in the form of broadsheets or broadsides (single cartoons printed on large pieces of paper), began to be posted in public places with the intent of swaying people’s beliefs. The broadsheet cartoon subsequently played a vital role in mobilizing public opinion in events such as the Eighty Years’ War between the Dutch and the Spanish (1568-1648), the Thirty Years’ War in Germany (1618-1638), and the European wars against Louis XIV of France (late 17th century to early 18th century).

Caricature, a process that is the foundation of much cartooning, derives its name from the Italian verb caricare, meaning to charge, load, or exaggerate. Caricature drawing originated in 16th- and 17th-century Italian art studios, where famous artists such as Annibale Carracci and Gianlorenzo Bernini created exaggerated, humorous drawings of individuals. Caricature drawing became popular in the early 18th century, when Italian artist Pier Leone Ghezzi discovered he could earn a living selling his drawings and sketches of individuals and celebrities.

C.1.

Early Cartooning

In the mid-18th century, English painter and engraver William Hogarth allied modified principles of caricature to realism to create comic types that were printed in line engravings and brought him widespread fame. Although the concept of multiple connected drawings did not take hold until the 19th century, Hogarth also launched the idea of pictorial storytelling—similar to that of a comic strip. He painted and engraved sets of narrative prints that satirized moral follies, such as A Harlot’s Progress (1732), A Rake’s Progress (1735), and Marriage à la Mode (1745). In the mid-18th century, English artist George Townshend became known for his portrait caricature cards, which were often hostile in intent.

In the so-called Golden Age of Caricature in England (about 1780 to 1820), thousands of broadsheet caricatures—essentially editorial cartoons—were produced, addressing the fashionable follies, political gossip, social scandals, and great issues of the day. The caricature-style cartoons of the Golden Age became hilarious, grotesque, and even on occasion vulgar. Artists such as James Gillray, who attacked politics, and Thomas Rowlandson, who excelled in social satire, were popular during this period. In France, from the 1830s, artist Honoré Daumier became known as the master of the political and social lithograph cartoon.

C.2.

Mid-19th Century

With the development of regular illustrated periodicals in the 19th century, the editorial cartoon became a staple of journalism, dealing with a great variety of issues. Punch, an English magazine first published in 1841, became known for its brilliant satirical cartoons, created by artists such as John Leech, John Tenniel, and George Du Maurier.

In the United States, cartoons began to appear in the late 18th century but were of low quality until the mid-19th century, when Thomas Nast began using his cartoons to lobby for or against specific causes. His best-known works are those about the American Civil War (1861-1865), in which he campaigned against slavery and for the Union states, and those criticizing corrupt politician William Marcy Tweed.

In the 1830s and 1840s Swiss artist Rodolphe Töpffer, building on Hogarth’s earlier idea of a continuous story line, began drawing his romans en estampes (French for “engraved novelettes”), creating the predecessor to the modern comic strip. Töpffer’s small albums of continuous strips (“comic books”), which featured characters in fantastic and nonsensical plots, were instant successes and offered a model that was then imitated in France and England. Later in the 19th century, German artist Wilhelm Busch created farcical and violent comic strips, such as “Max und Moritz” (1865- ), that remain popular in Germany.

C.3.

20th Century

While editorial cartoons continued to grow in popularity and to influence people’s opinions on politics and society, the 20th century has been dominated by animated cartoons, the gag cartoon, and comic strips.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cartoonists began to experiment with animation, using the new medium of motion pictures. French artist Émile Cohl is credited with creating the first animated films, and American artist Winsor McCay produced the first animated cartoons in the United States. While European animators enjoyed experimenting with the artistic possibilities of the medium, most American animators focused on using animation to tell humorous, entertaining stories. Many animated films used existing comic-strip characters in their story lines (see below). In addition, Walt Disney, William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, and other animators and their studios created such memorable characters as Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Tweety and Sylvester, and Bugs Bunny. Animation has become popular in advertising and has enjoyed success in television series.

The gag cartoon was popularized by the New Yorker magazine (1925- ). Unlike Punch and other magazines, which often printed several lines of dialogue to explain a one-frame cartoon, the New Yorker published witty cartoons with one-line captions, known as one-liners, or cartoons with no caption at all. This simple yet ingenious style, perfected by James Thurber, Charles Addams, Peter Arno, and others, continues to be popular.

The modern newspaper comic strip gained popularity in the United States as a result of the rivalry between influential publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, both of whom owned major newspapers. Sensing the popularity of comics, Hearst and Pulitzer began to compete for the rights to publish readers’ favorite strips, and they gradually enlarged the comic strip sections of their newspapers in hopes of increasing sales. The first daily strip appeared in the United States in 1904, and daily strips soon became a regular feature of most major newspapers, eventually filling a whole page each day. Humorous strips such as “The Yellow Kid” (1895-1901), by Richard Outcault, and “Katzenjammer Kids” (1897-1958), by Rudolph Dirks, were immensely successful. Winsor McKay’s “Little Nemo in Slumberland” (1906-1914), another popular strip, was gentle and imaginative in tone and one of the first strips to use color. From the early 1900s through the 1930s, a number of specialized cartoon genres were created, including sports, ethnic character, career woman, and science fiction. Other cartooning genres and styles that emerged during this period include social realism (“Gasoline Alley,” 1919- , by Frank King), surrealism (“Krazy Kat,” 1911-1944, by George Herriman), adventure series (“Tarzan,” 1929- , by Hal Foster; “Flash Gordon,” 1933- , by Alex Raymond), detective stories (“Dick Tracy,” 1931- , by Chester Gould), and slapstick comedy (“Thimble Theater,” 1919-1938, by Elzie Segar).

Comic books appeared infrequently during the early 20th century, but in 1933 advertisers began to produce books containing reprints of comic strips to give away as premiums with certain merchandise. Comic books later acquired original stories and have since become immensely popular. “Superman” (1938- ) is the most famous early title.

World War II (1939-1945) hastened the development of comic strips and comic books dealing with war and crime. The sadism of certain American comics of the period, which became known as horror comics, became a scandal nationally and internationally. The era also saw the emergence of subtle political commentary in comics (“Pogo,” 1949-1973, by Walt Kelly; “Feiffer,” 1956-1997, by Jules Feiffer), in addition to strips featuring children whose innocence only partially masked a certain sophistication (“Peanuts,” 1950-2000).

By 1963 there were more than 300 different strips in newspapers in the United States. Beginning in the 1960s poster cartoons, similar in appearance to the broadsheets of previous centuries, began to appear, usually as a means of communicating political protest. The traditional role of the cartoon as an expression of popular political passion was adopted in a massive poster campaign against the war in Vietnam (1959-1975) that helped to arouse a great mobilization of popular opinion in the United States. The campaign’s impact was partly attributable to the sheer size of the poster cartoons combined with their use of color. As compared with tiny, black-and-white newspaper cartoons, the medium made for much greater visual impact.

The radical culture of the 1960s and early 1970s spawned a genre known as underground comics (or underground comix). Aimed at an adolescent and young-adult audience, underground comix explored previously forbidden subjects such as psychedelic drugs, sexual freedom, extreme violence, and radical politics. Masters of this genre included American cartoonists Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman.

In the 1980s and 1990s comics began attracting a large market of collectors and scholars. Conferences, conventions, auctions, and magazines related to comics became common. Japanese comics, known as manga and popular in Japan since the 1950s, gained a wider international audience, and Japanese styles of drawing and storytelling profoundly influenced American cartooning. Mainstream comic strips began addressing controversial issues, such as feminism (“Sylvia,” 1981- , by Nicole Hollander; “Cathy,” 1976- , by Cathy Guisewite), and a few comics, including “Doonesbury” (1970- , by Garry Trudeau) and “Bloom County” (1980-1989, by Berkeley Breathed), generated controversy and criticism with their treatment of political topics.

Animated cartoons regained popularity as computer animation offered new possibilities and cable television provided new outlets. The Simpsons (1990- ) and South Park (1997- ) were among the most popular animated cartoon series on television. The Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon also telecast cartoons. See also Animation.