Type of two-dimensional visual art
Example of a modern cartoon. The text was excerpted by cartoonist Greg Williams from the Wikipedia article on
Dr. Seuss
.
A
cartoon
is a type of
visual art
that is typically drawn, frequently
animated
, in an
unrealistic
or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for
satire
,
caricature
, or
humor
; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a
cartoonist
,
[1]
and in the second sense they are usually called an
animator
.
The concept originated in the
Middle Ages
, and first described a preparatory drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting,
fresco
,
tapestry
, or
stained glass
window. In the 19th century, beginning in
Punch
magazine in 1843, cartoon came to refer ? ironically at first ? to humorous artworks in magazines and newspapers. Then it also was used for
political cartoons
and
comic strips
. When the medium developed, in the early 20th century, it began to refer to
animated
films that resembled print cartoons.
[2]
Fine art
Christ's Charge to Peter
, one of the
Raphael Cartoons
,
c.
1516
, a full-size cartoon design for a tapestry
A cartoon (from
Italian
:
cartone
and
Dutch
:
karton
?words describing strong, heavy paper or pasteboard) is a full-size drawing made on sturdy
paper
as a design or
modello
for a
painting
,
stained glass
, or
tapestry
. Cartoons were typically used in the production of
frescoes
, to accurately link the component parts of the composition when painted on damp
plaster
over a series of days (
giornate
).
In media such as stained tapestry or stained glass, the cartoon was handed over by the artist to the skilled craftsmen who produced the final work.
Such cartoons often have pinpricks along the outlines of the design so that a bag of soot patted or "pounced" over a cartoon, held against the wall, would leave black dots on the plaster ("pouncing"). Cartoons by
painters
, such as the
Raphael Cartoons
in London,
Francisco Goya's tapestry cartoons
, and examples by
Leonardo da Vinci
, are highly prized in their own right. Tapestry cartoons, usually colored, could be placed behind the
loom
, where the
weaver
would replicate the design. As tapestries are worked from behind, a mirror could be placed behind the loom to allow the weaver to see their work; in such cases the cartoon was placed behind the weaver.
[2]
Mass media
John Leech
,
Substance and Shadow
(1843), published as
Cartoon, No. 1
in
Punch
, the first use of the word cartoon to refer to a satirical drawing
In print media, a cartoon is a drawing or series of drawings, usually humorous in intent. This usage dates from 1843, when
Punch
magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages,
[5]
particularly sketches by
John Leech
.
The first of these parodied the preparatory cartoons for grand historical frescoes in the then-new
Palace of Westminster
in London.
[7]
Davy Jones' Locker
, 1892
Punch
cartoon by Sir
John Tenniel
Sir
John Tenniel
?illustrator of
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
?
joined
Punch
in 1850, and over 50 years contributed over two thousand cartoons.
[8]
Cartoons can be divided into
gag cartoons
, which include editorial cartoons, and comic strips.
Modern single-panel gag cartoons, found in magazines, generally consist of a single drawing with a typeset caption positioned beneath, or, less often, a
speech balloon
.
Newspaper syndicates have also distributed single-panel gag cartoons by
Mel Calman
,
Bill Holman
,
Gary Larson
,
George Lichty
,
Fred Neher
and others. Many consider
New Yorker
cartoonist
Peter Arno
the father of the modern gag cartoon (as did Arno himself).
[10]
The roster of magazine gag cartoonists includes
Charles Addams
,
Charles Barsotti
, and
Chon Day
.
Bill Hoest
,
Jerry Marcus
, and
Virgil Partch
began as magazine gag cartoonists and moved to syndicated
comic strips
.
Richard Thompson
illustrated numerous feature articles in
The Washington Post
before creating his
Cul de Sac
comic strip. The sports section of newspapers usually featured cartoons, sometimes including syndicated features such as Chester "Chet" Brown's
All in Sport
.
Editorial cartoons
are found almost exclusively in news publications and news websites. Although they also employ humor, they are more serious in tone, commonly using
irony
or
satire
. The art usually acts as a visual metaphor to illustrate a point of view on current social or political topics. Editorial cartoons often include speech balloons and sometimes use multiple panels.
Editorial cartoonists
of note include
Herblock
,
David Low
,
Jeff MacNelly
,
Mike Peters
, and
Gerald Scarfe
.
[2]
Comic strips
, also known as
cartoon strips
in the United Kingdom, are found daily in newspapers worldwide, and are usually a short series of cartoon illustrations in sequence. In the United States, they are not commonly called "cartoons" themselves, but rather "comics" or "
funnies
". Nonetheless, the creators of comic strips?as well as
comic books
and
graphic novels
?are usually referred to as "
cartoonists
". Although humor is the most prevalent subject matter, adventure and drama are also represented in this medium. Some noteworthy cartoonists of humorous comic strips are
Scott Adams
,
Charles Schulz
,
E. C. Segar
,
Mort Walker
and
Bill Watterson
.
[2]
Political
Political cartoons are like illustrated editorials that serve visual commentaries on political events. They offer subtle criticism which are cleverly quoted with humour and satire to the extent that the criticized does not get embittered.
The pictorial satire of
William Hogarth
is regarded as a precursor to the development of political cartoons in 18th century England.
George Townshend
produced some of the first overtly political cartoons and caricatures in the 1750s.
[12]
The medium began to develop in the latter part of the 18th century under the direction of its great exponents,
James Gillray
and
Thomas Rowlandson
, both from London. Gillray explored the use of the medium for lampooning and
caricature
, and has been referred to as the father of the political cartoon.
By calling the king, prime ministers and generals to account for their behaviour, many of Gillray's satires were directed against
George III
, depicting him as a pretentious buffoon, while the bulk of his work was dedicated to ridiculing the ambitions of
revolutionary France
and
Napoleon
.
George Cruikshank
became the leading cartoonist in the period following Gillray, from 1815 until the 1840s. His career was renowned for his social caricatures of English life for popular publications.
Nast depicts the
Tweed Ring
: "Who stole the people's money?" /
"
'Twas him."
By the mid 19th century, major political newspapers in many other countries featured cartoons commenting on the politics of the day.
Thomas Nast
, in New York City, showed how realistic German drawing techniques could redefine American cartooning.
His 160 cartoons relentlessly pursued the criminal characteristic of the
Tweed machine
in New York City, and helped bring it down. Indeed, Tweed was arrested in Spain when police identified him from Nast's cartoons.
In Britain, Sir
John Tenniel
was the toast of London.
In France under the
July Monarchy
,
Honore Daumier
took up the new genre of political and social
caricature
, most famously lampooning the rotund
King Louis Philippe
.
Political cartoons can be humorous or satirical, sometimes with piercing effect. The target of the humor may complain, but can seldom fight back. Lawsuits have been very rare; the first successful lawsuit against a cartoonist in over a century in Britain came in 1921, when
J. H. Thomas
, the leader of the
National Union of Railwaymen
(NUR), initiated libel proceedings against the magazine of the
British Communist Party
. Thomas claimed defamation in the form of cartoons and words depicting the events of "Black Friday", when he allegedly betrayed the locked-out
Miners' Federation
. To Thomas, the framing of his image by the far left threatened to grievously degrade his character in the popular imagination. Soviet-inspired communism was a new element in European politics, and cartoonists unrestrained by tradition tested the boundaries of libel law. Thomas won the lawsuit and restored his reputation.
[17]
Scientific
Cartoons such as
xkcd
have also found their place in the world of
science
,
mathematics
, and
technology
. For example, the cartoon
Wonderlab
looked at daily life in the chemistry lab. In the U.S., one well-known cartoonist for these fields is
Sidney Harris
. Many of
Gary Larson
's cartoons have a scientific flavor.
Comic books
The first
comic-strip
cartoons were of a humorous tone.
[18]
Notable early
humor comics
include the Swiss comic-strip book
Mr. Vieux Bois
(1837), the British strip
Ally Sloper
(first appearing in 1867) and the American strip
Yellow Kid
(first appearing in 1895).
In the United States in the 1930s, books with cartoons were magazine-format "
American comic books
" with original material, or occasionally reprints of newspaper comic strips.
[19]
In Britain in the 1930s,
adventure comic
magazines became quite popular, especially those published by
DC Thomson
; the publisher sent observers around the country to talk to boys and learn what they wanted to read about. The story line in magazines, comic books and cinema that most appealed to boys was the glamorous heroism of British soldiers fighting wars that were exciting and just.
[20]
DC Thomson issued the first
The Dandy Comic
in December 1937. It had a revolutionary design that broke away from the usual children's comics that were published broadsheet in size and not very colourful. Thomson capitalized on its success with a similar product
The Beano
in 1938.
[21]
On some occasions, new
gag cartoons
have been created for book publication.
Animation
An
animated cartoon
horse, drawn by
rotoscoping
from
Eadweard Muybridge
's 19th-century photos
Because of the stylistic similarities between comic strips and early animated films,
cartoon
came to refer to
animation
, and the word
cartoon
is currently used in reference to both
animated cartoons
and gag cartoons.
While
animation
designates any style of illustrated images seen in rapid succession to give the impression of movement, the word "cartoon" is most often used as a descriptor for television programs and short films aimed at children, possibly featuring
anthropomorphized
animals,
superheroes
, the adventures of child protagonists or related themes.
In the 1980s,
cartoon
was shortened to
toon
, referring to characters in animated productions. This term was popularized in 1988 by the combined live-action/animated film
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
, followed in 1990 by the animated TV series
Tiny Toon Adventures
.
See also
References
- ^
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Becker 1959
- ^
Punch.co.uk.
"History of the Cartoon"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-11-11
. Retrieved
2007-11-01
.
- ^
"Substance and Shadow: Original Editorial Accompanying "Cartoon, No. I"
"
. Victorian web.org
. Retrieved
29 October
2023
.
- ^
"Sir John Tenniel"
.
National Portrait Gallery
. Retrieved
26 August
2022
.
- ^
Maslin, Michael (May 5, 2016).
"The Peter Arno Cartoons That Help Rescue The New Yorker"
.
The New Yorker
. Retrieved
2018-09-16
.
- ^
Chris Upton.
"Birth of England's pocket cartoon"
. The Free Library.
- ^
Samuel S. Hyde,
"
'Please, Sir, he called me "Jimmy!' Political Cartooning before the Law: 'Black Friday', J.H. Thomas, and the Communist Libel Trial of 1921",
Contemporary British History
(2011)
25
(4), pp. 521?550.
- ^
Harvey, R. C.
(2001). "Comedy at the Juncture of Word and Image". In Varnum, Robin; Gibbons, Christina T. (eds.).
The Language of Comics: Word and Image
.
University Press of Mississippi
. p. 77.
ISBN
978-1-57806-414-4
.
- ^
"A History of the Comic Book"
.
Random History
. March 18, 2008. Archived from
the original
on 25 May 2013
. Retrieved
16 July
2014
.
- ^
Ernest Sackville Turner
,
Boys Will Be Boys: The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton et al.
(3rd ed. 1975).
- ^
M. Keith Booker (2014).
Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas [4 volumes]: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas
. Abc-Clio. p. 74.
ISBN
9780313397516
.
Bibliography
- Adelson, Candace (1994).
European tapestry in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
. Minnesota: Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
ISBN
9780810932623
.
- Adler, John; Hill, Draper (2008).
Doomed by Cartoon: How Cartoonist Thomas Nast and the New York Times Brought Down Boss Tweed and His Ring of Thieves
.
Morgan James Publishing
.
ISBN
978-1-60037-443-2
.
- Becker, Stephen D.; Goldberg, Rube (1959).
Comic Art in America: A Social History of the Funnies, the Political Cartoons, Magazine Humor, Sporting Cartoons, and Animated Cartoons
. Simon & Schuster.
- Bishop, Franklin (2009).
Cartoonist's Bible: An Essential Reference for Practicing Artist
. London: Chartwell Books.
ISBN
978-0-7858-2085-7
.
- Blackbeard, Bill, ed. (1977).
The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics
. Smithsonian Inst. Press.
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The Painter's Workshop
. Courier Dover Publications.
ISBN
9780486238364
. Retrieved
20 January
2013
.
- Horn, Maurice
(1976).
The World Encyclopedia of Comics
.
Chelsea House
.
ISBN
9780877540427
.
- Morris, Frankie; Tenniel, Sir John (2005).
Artist Of Wonderland: The Life, Political Cartoons, And Illustrations Of Tenniel
. University of Virginia Press.
ISBN
9780813923437
.
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The Political Cartoon
. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
ISBN
9780838619018
.
- Robinson, Jerry (1974).
The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art
.
G.P. Putnam's Sons
.
- Rowson, Martin (21 March 2015).
"Satire, sewers and statesmen: why James Gillray was king of the cartoon"
. The Guardian.
- Walasek, Helen (2009).
The Best of Punch Cartoons: 2,000 Humor Classics
. England: Overlook Press.
ISBN
978-1-5902-0308-8
.
- Wells, Paul (November 28, 2008).
The Animated Bestiary: Animals, Cartoons, and Culture
. Rutgers University Press.
ISBN
978-0-8135-4643-8
.
- Yockey, Steve (2008).
Cartoon
. Samuel French.
ISBN
978-0-573-66383-3
.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Cartoons
.
Look up
cartoon
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.