Fans look for comics in books and magazines. Little squares of funnies get taped to doors, stuck by magnets to fridges and posted on message boards. We get attached to their familiar style, their characters and plot lines and to each cartoonist's particular sense of humour.
We also need to see them as they truly are: works of art.
Each panel, comic strip or caricature is carefully planned. It is painstakingly drawn, inked and coloured. Cartoons range from simple yet enticing line drawings, such as "Cathy" by Cathy Guisewite or intricately detailed, like the work of Rube Goldberg, creator of "The Inventions."
A common thread for cartoonists is their desire to draw, to be artists, from a very young age. Many begin doodling and cartooning when they are just old enough to get a crayon to cooperate with their little fingers. The yearning to draw distracts them from schoolwork. And it leaves a legacy of textbooks with imaginative cartoons scribbled on the pages and covers.
There are as many themes of cartooning as there are cartoonists. Family sagas have a popular following. "For Better or For Worse" by Lynn Johnston follows the Patterson family. Readers have watched, cheered and cried as John and Ellie raised a young family, suffered deaths and disasters, started business and now have moved on to be grandparents in the near future. The popular cartoon is not just a quick laugh. Lynn Johnston draws readers in and turns them into fans with her good storylines and expressive, consistent drawings.
Peanuts, by beloved late Charles Schulz, celebrated 50 years of success in 2000. Millions of people grew up watching Charlie Brown trying his best to succeed no matter what the obstacle. We watched Snoopy battle the Red Baron as the Flying Ace, and Linus do some nifty moves with his security blanket. Schulz showed us that grumpy Lucy had feelings too, and that the Christmas Story is universally loved. That was a big mission for a cartoon.
Animals, creatures, inanimate objects and aliens make fun at themselves and human behaviour through the pens of cartoonists. There is no limit to the cartoon artist's creativity.
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