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For more information on cartoon, visit Britannica.com.

A drawing or painting made as a detailed model, often full-scale, of an architectural embellishment.

In 1906, Vitagraph released the first animated film in the United States, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, by cartoonist James Stuart Blackton. It featured a series of faces, letters, and words being drawn. This rudimentary foundation encouraged other cartoon pioneers, including Emil Cohl and Winsor McCay. Cohl produced Drame Chez Les Fantoches (A Drama in Fantoche's House) (1908), a film more like modern classics, both funny and with a well-developed plot. McCay's Little Nemo (1911), the first fully animated film, was based on his Newspaper comic strip. His Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) was the first to use frame-by-frame animation, which produced fluid motion. Gertie also initiated fascination with a central character.

In the 1910s, animated cartoons were also being produced as series. John Randolph Bray had success with a number of them. Bray and other innovators developed ways of speeding up the drawing process using translucent paper, which enabled quicker drawing. The decade also witnessed the rise of the cell animation process and other important advances.

Like early motion pictures, the cartoons were silent. Various methods of portraying speech were used, from balloons to dialogue on the screen, sometimes confusing the audience. In addition, the cartoonists lacked the resources to focus on story continuity. Often the cartoonist did all the work individually or with a small staff. Cartoons might have disappeared without sound.

Disney and Warner Brothers

The first sound cartoon, Song Car-Tunes, produced by Max and Dave Fleischer, appeared in 1924, three years before the first talking motion picture, Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer. Walt Disney introduced Mickey Mouse in 1928 in Steamboat Willie. In the 1930s, sound production fueled the growth of cartoons. In this period, Warner Brothers introduced the Looney Tunes series.

After the success of Steamboat Willie, Disney created the first full-color cartoon, Flowers and Trees (1932). Five years later, he scored with the first animated feature movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It earned $8 million in its initial release, a success enabling Disney to build his empire. Disney established the idea that unique cartoon personalities would draw audiences. His company led the industry in cartoon development and Disney's success was widely copied. Disney also pushed merchandising, created the Disney theme parks in California in 1955 and Florida in 1971, and introduced a television show. He followed Snow White with a series of animated films that remain favorites, including Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Bambi (1942), Cinderella (1950), and Peter Pan (1953). Drawing on universal themes, like good versus evil and family, the films featured songs, humor, slapstick, and emotion, all with intricate scenery, detailed drawing, and wonderful musical scores. Disney films were so triumphant that other animators essentially abandoned the field for twenty years.

Warner Brothers rivaled Disney in the early years of animated films. Cartoonist Chuck Jones popularized the wisecracking Bugs Bunny, who first appeared in the 1940 short, A Wild Hare. While at Warner from 1936 to 1962, Jones also created Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote. Jones's favorite, however, was Daffy Duck, the daft everyman who first appeared in 1937. Jones is acknowledged as the inspiration of everything from the smart alecky Rugrats to the blockbuster movie The Lion King (1994). Except for Disney, no one had a more lasting influence on the development of cartoons.

The Television Age

In the 1950s, the rise of television and a decision by theater owners to stop paying extra for cartoon shorts reduced the importance of animated films. Studios began syndicating films for television. By the mid-1950s, more than four hundred TV stations ran cartoons, usually in the afternoons.

The first made-for-television series was Crusader Rabbit, which debuted in 1950. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera introduced the cat and mouse team Tom and Jerry and later Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Quick Draw McGraw. To maximize profits, Hanna and Barbera used limited animation, eliminated preliminary sketches, and recorded sound quickly.

The late 1950s and 1960s witnessed a plethora of all-cartoon series entering the market, from Rocky and His Friends (1959) to Magilla Gorilla (1964) and Speed Racer (1967). Cartoons began branching out into new areas, with some based on successful noncartoon shows. The Flintstones (1960), for example, was based on the sitcom The Honeymooners. Some animated series were based on comic books and strips like Dick Tracy and Superman.

In the 1960s, ABC put cartoons at the heart of its prime-time lineup, airing The Flintstones in 1960, followed by The Bugs Bunny Show (1960). In 1962, ABC added the space-age family The Jetsons and later The Adventures of Johnny Quest (1964). The first animated made-for-television special was NBC's 1962 Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, an adaptation of Dickens's famous story. The second holiday show was A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), based on Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip. It attracted over half of the viewing audience. Theodore Geisel's Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas appeared in 1966 on CBS.

Beginning in the 1963–1964 season, the networks ran cartoons on Saturday mornings. Large corporations like Kellogg's sponsored these cartoons and forced the networks to expand their selections. CBS executive Fred Silverman, who was responsible for the Saturday lineup, realized that both adults and children would watch. The cartoons solidified the network's first-place standing in that time slot. ABC and NBC followed, and in 1970 the three networks made nearly $67 million in advertising revenue from their Saturday morning programming.

After the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, a public outcry against TV violence rocked the cartoon industry. Network censors cracked down. Comedy shows replaced action adventures, which drove away adult viewers. Cartoons were now seen as educational tools, not just entertainment.

The Rebirth of Animated Films

In the theaters, animated films for adults emerged. The Beatles' animated Yellow Submarine (1968) and the X-rated Fritz the Cat (1971), by Ralph Bakshi, proved that adults would view a less Disneyesque cartoon. Their success and that of later ones gave Disney its first serious competition in decades. The revival of animated films also included children's films such as Charlotte's Web (1972) and Watership Down (1978).

The demand for family-oriented films continued in the 1980s. Again, Disney led the industry, producing Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Based on new characters, the film broke the magical $100 million mark in revenues.

In the 1990s, almost every animated movie became a hit and studios jumped in to battle Disney. In 1994 Disney released The Lion King, which became the highest grossing animated film of all time. The following year, Disney and Pixar released Toy Story, a technological masterpiece produced completely with computer animation. A string of computer-animated films followed. The Pixar film, Monsters, Inc. (2001), gave Disney another huge hit, the second all-time money earner for animated films.

The revival of animated films made it fashionable for actors to voice the characters. Major stars such as Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams have lent their voices to animated films. The growth of VHS and DVD sales has doubled the revenue of some animated films.

Television benefited from the rebirth of films, particularly in the adult market. In 1990, Fox introduced Matt Groening's The Simpsons in primetime, turning its characters into popular culture icons. MTV countered with Beavis and Butt-Head in 1993. The growth of cable television pushed cartoons in new directions. In 1990, Disney introduced a block of afternoon programming for the Fox Kids Network. The cable mogul Ted Turner created the twenty-four-hour Cartoon Network in the early 1990s. Opposition to animated violence, however, under-mined the business. The Children's Television Act of 1990 required educational programs for children. Essentially, the act ended the traditional Saturday morning cartoon programming.

Cartoons continue to play an important role in popular culture and have a magnificent future. Using computer animation, Hollywood churns out hit film after hit film, while television audiences continue to grow. Video sales and rentals get subsequent generations of youngsters interested in traditional cartoons and characters while also promoting new films. As long as audiences want new animated films, television shows, and cartoons, the industry will respond.

Bibliography

Grant, John. Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.

Jones, Chuck. Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1989.

Lenburg, Jeff. The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. 2d ed. New York: Facts on File, 1999.

Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.

Peary, Danny, and Gerald Peary, eds. The American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology. New York: Dutton, 1980.

—Bob Batchelor

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

• Journalism - cartoon: illustration, esp. for political commentary, amusement, or as space filler, in newspaper or periodical
• Painting Tools and Techniques - cartoon: full-size, preliminary painting or sketch for completed work
• Genres and Types of Pictures - cartoon: animated film
• Graphic Design - cartoon: preliminary drawing; humorous sketch or drawing, as in comic strip

For other uses, see Cartoon (disambiguation).

Example of a modern cartoon. The text was excerpted by cartoonist Greg Williams from the Wikipedia article Dr. Seuss.

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works. An artist who creates cartoons is called a cartoonist.^[1]

The term 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, it came to refer to humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers, and in the early 20th century and onward it referred to comic strips and animated films.^[2]

Contents 1 Fine art 2 Print media 3 Books 4 Animation 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

Fine art

Main article: Modello

A cartoon (from the Italian "cartone" and Dutch word "karton", meaning strong, heavy paper or pasteboard) is a full-size drawing made on sturdy paper as a study 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).

Such cartoons often have pinpricks along the outlines of the design; a bag of soot was then patted or "pounced" over the cartoon, held against the wall to leave black dots on the plaster ("pouncing"). Cartoons by painters, such as the Raphael Cartoons in London and examples by Leonardo da Vinci, are highly prized in their own right. Tapestry cartoons, usually coloured, were followed by eye by the weavers on the loom.^[2]

Print media

John Leech's "Cartoon no.1: Substance and Shadow" (1843) satirized preparatory cartoons for frescoes in the Palace of Westminster, creating the modern meaning of "cartoon".

In modern print media, a cartoon is a piece of art, usually humorous in intent. This usage dates from 1843 when Punch magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages,^[3] particularly sketches by John Leech. The first of these parodied the preparatory cartoons for grand historical frescoes in the then-new Palace of Westminster. The original title for these drawings was Mr Punch's face is the letter Q and the new title "cartoon" was intended to be ironic, a reference to the self-aggrandizing posturing of Westminster politicians.

Modern single-panel gag cartoons, found in magazines, generally consist of a single drawing with a typeset caption positioned beneath or (much 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). The roster of magazine gag cartoonists includes Charles Addams, Charles Barsotti and Chon Day.

Bill Hoest, Jerry Marcus and Virgil Partch began as a magazine gag cartoonists and moved on to do syndicated comic strips. Noteworthy in the area of newspaper cartoon illustration is Richard Thompson, who illustrated numerous feature articles in The Washington Post before creating his Cul de Sac comic strip. Sports sections 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 and/or political topics. Editorial cartoons often include speech balloons and, sometimes, 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 as 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. Noteworthy cartoonists of humor strips include Scott Adams, Steve Bell, Charles Schulz, E. C. Segar, Mort Walker and Bill Watterson.^[2]

Books

Books with cartoons are usually reprints of newspaper cartoons. On some occasions, new gag cartoons have been created for book publication, as was the case with Think Small, a 1967 promotional book distributed as a giveaway by Volkswagen dealers. Bill Hoest and other cartoonists of that decade drew cartoons showing Volkswagens, and these were published along with humorous automotive essays by such humorists as H. Allen Smith, Roger Price and Jean Shepherd. The book's design juxtaposed each cartoon alongside a photograph of the cartoon's creator.

Animation

An animated cartoon horse, drawn by rotoscoping from Eadweard Muybridge's 19th-century photos.

Main article: Animated cartoon

Because of the stylistic similarities between comic strips and early animated movies, "cartoon" came to refer to animation, and the word "cartoon" is currently used to refer 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 in reference to TV programs and short films for children featuring anthropomorphized animals, superheroes, the adventures of child protagonists and related genres.

At the end of the 1980s, the word "cartoon" was shortened, and the word "toon" came into usage with the live action/animated feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), followed two years later by the TV series Tiny Toon Adventures (1990).

See also

	Cartoon portal
	Comics portal
	Animation portal
	Arts portal
	Visual arts portal
	Film portal

• Caricature
• Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
• Comics Studies
• Editorial cartoon
• List of comic strips
• List of cartoonists
• List of editorial cartoonists

References

1. ^ Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Becker, Stephen. Comic Art in America. Simon & Schuster, 1959.
3. ^ Punch.co.uk. "History of the Cartoon". http://punch.co.uk/cartoonhistory02.html. 

Further reading

• Robinson, Jerry, The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art (1974) G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Horn, Maurice, The World Encyclopedia of Comics (1976) Chelsea House, (1982) Avon
• Blackbeard, Bill, ed. The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics (1977) Smithsonian Inst. Press/Harry Abrams

External links

Look up cartoon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Dan Becker, History of Cartoons
• Marchand collection cartoons & photos
• Stamp Act 1765 with British & American cartoons
• Slavery
• Lilly Library collection pre 1865
• Harper's Weekly 150 cartoons on elections 1860-1912; Reconstruction topics; Chinese exclusion; plus American Political Prints from the Library of Congress, 1766–1876
  • Elections 1860-1912 as covered by Harper's Weekly; news, editorials, cartoons (many by Thomas Nast)
  • Thomas Nast cartoons strongly pro-GOP, pro-Reconstruction, anti-South, anti-Irish, & anti-Catholic
  • more Nast cartoons
  • still more Nast
• "Graphic Witness" political caricatures in history
• Gilded Age & Progressive Era Cartoons, industry, labor, politics, prohibition from Ohio State University
• Puck political cartoons
• Hawaii editorial cartoons
• Keppler cartoons
• 1892 political cartoons
• Opper cartoons for 1900 election ridiculing TR and McKinley as pawns of Trusts and Sen. Hanna
• WWI cartoons
• Ding Darling editorial cartoons 1910-1950
• New Deal Cartoons systematic collection of original editorial cartoons from many newspapers; research resource on New Deal by year and topic 1933-45
• Lindbergh & America First with cartoons & graphics & audio speeches
• Dr Seuss cartoons from WW2
• Harry Truman caricatured
• Oliphant's 1970s; political
• Herblock 1920-s 2000s; editorial cartoons from liberal perspective
• current editorial cartoons
• Index of cartoonists in the Fred Waring Collection
• International Society for Humor Studies

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - vittighedstegning, tegnefilm, tegneserie, udkast
v. tr. - karikere
v. intr. - tegne udkast

Nederlands (Dutch)
strip, cartoon, tekenfilm, spotprent, schetsen, striptekenen

Français (French)
n. - (Cin) dessin animé, film d'animation, dessin humoristique, bande dessinée, (Art) carton (d'une esquisse)
v. tr. - réaliser un film d'animation, caricaturer, ridiculiser (par un dessin humoristique)
v. intr. - dessiner/faire un dessin animé

Deutsch (German)
n. - Comic, Bildgeschichte, Cartoon, humoristische Zeichnung, Zeichentrickfilm
v. - karikieren, als Cartoon entwerfen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γελοιογραφία, κινούμενο σχέδιο (κν. μικιμάους, καρτούν), μακέτα, προσχέδιο

Italiano (Italian)
cartone animato, fumetto, vignetta, disegno animato, film d'animazione, caricatura

Português (Portuguese)
n. - desenho (m) animado, caricatura (f), molde (m) em papel duro

idioms:

• strip cartoon    tira (f) de quadrinhos

Русский (Russian)
мультфильм, карикатура

idioms:

• strip cartoon    комикс

Español (Spanish)
n. - historieta, cómic, chiste ilustrado, dibujos animados, caricatura, dibujo cómico
v. tr. - caricaturizar, hacer cartones, hacer caricaturas
v. intr. - hacer cartones, hacer caricaturas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tecknad serie/film/teckning, kartong

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
讽刺画, 动画电影, 动画, 连环漫画, 草图, 底图, 为...画漫画, 为...画草图, 画漫画, 画草图

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 諷刺畫, 動畫電影, 動畫, 連環漫畫, 草圖, 底圖
v. tr. - 為...畫漫畫, 為...畫草圖
v. intr. - 畫漫畫, 畫草圖

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 풍자화, 만화영화
v. tr. - 만화를 그리다, 밑그림을 그리다
v. intr. - 만화를 그리다, 밑그림을 그리다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 時事風刺漫画, 連続漫画, 実物大の下絵, 漫画映画, 漫画
v. - 漫画化する, 漫画を描く

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الرسوم المتحركه, رسم هزلي, رسم تمهيدي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קריקטורה, סרט מצוייר‬
v. tr. - ‮צייר קריקטורה‬
v. intr. - ‮צייר קריקטורות‬

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