Cartoon facts for kids
A cartoon is a type of two-dimensional drawing or picture. The meaning of "cartoon" has changed over time. Today, it usually means:
- A drawing or painting style that is not fully realistic.
- Pictures made to be funny, to make fun of something (satire), or to show someone in an exaggerated way (caricature).
- A moving picture (like a movie) made from a series of drawings that seem to move.
An artist who creates cartoons is called a cartoonist. The idea of cartoons started a very long time ago, in the Middle Ages. Back then, a cartoon was a large drawing used to plan a bigger artwork, like a painting or a tapestry.
In the 1800s, the word "cartoon" started being used for funny drawings in newspapers and magazines. After the early 1900s, it also began to mean comic strips and animated films. Today, you can even find cartoons published on the internet!
Contents
What are the different types of cartoons?
There are several types of cartoons, each with a different purpose.
Cartoons for artwork
The oldest meaning of "cartoon" is a full-sized drawing made as a plan for a finished piece of art. Imagine an artist planning a huge painting for a wall or ceiling. They would first draw a "cartoon" of it. This large drawing would then be used to transfer the design onto the wall.
Artists also made cartoons to design tapestries. These are large, woven pictures. A famous example is a set of cartoons by the artist Raphael. These drawings show scenes from the "Life of St Peter." The cartoons are now kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The finished tapestries, made from these designs, belong to the Vatican and were created for the famous Sistine Chapel.
Political cartoons
In the 1700s, artists like William Hogarth created funny drawings about important topics. These topics included things like poverty, elections, and war. These drawings were made into prints and sold cheaply. They weren't called "cartoons" then, but they led to the idea of modern political cartoons.
Today, many newspapers publish a new political cartoon every day. The word "cartoon" was first used for these types of drawings in 1843. It appeared in an English magazine called Punch.
A political cartoon does not always show real people. Sometimes, it might use a symbol for a country or an organization. For example, Britain might be shown as a woman. Russia could be shown as a bear. The United States might be shown as a Bald Eagle. These symbols help the cartoonist make a point about a country or idea.
Comic strips
Political cartoons sometimes showed different parts of the same story. This led to the idea of telling funny stories using a series of pictures. These are called comic strips. They are a type of "cartoon" often found in newspapers.
Some of the earliest comic strips include The Katzenjammer Kids (starting in 1897) and Ginger Meggs (from 1921). Some comic strips feature animals, like Garfield. Later comic strips, from the 1950s onwards, introduced superheros such as Superman and The Phantom.
Web comics
Comic strips that are posted on the internet are called web comics. Some web comics use animation and sound to add special effects. Many web comics are much longer than what newspapers usually print. They often have a large collection of older strips for new readers to enjoy. This allows them to tell longer stories. Many web comics are created and shared by independent artists.
Movie cartoons
- Main article: Animation
When the movie industry began, some artists started trying to make drawings that looked like they were moving. These moving drawings also became known as "cartoons." They often showed animals instead of humans. Most were just for fun. However, sometimes, especially during World War II, they were used for political reasons, much like newspaper cartoons.
Walt Disney and Warner Bros. both made very famous movie cartoons. Some well-known cartoon characters include Felix the Cat (from 1922), Mickey Mouse (from 1928), Popeye (from 1929), and Bugs Bunny (from 1940).
At first, movie cartoons were quite short. When people bought a movie ticket, they would often see a news program, a few short cartoons, and then the main movie. Walt Disney then had the clever idea of telling a long story as a "cartoon." The first full-length animated movie he made was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (in 1937).
Movie cartoons quickly became a very popular type of entertainment. Today, many modern movie cartoons are made using computer graphics. They are not always hand-drawn anymore. Examples include Toy Story (from 1995) and Shrek (from 2001).
Images for kids
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Christ's Charge to Peter, one of the Raphael Cartoons, made around 1516. This was a full-size drawing for a tapestry.
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John Leech, Substance and Shadow (1843). This was published as Cartoon, No. 1 in Punch. This was the first time the word "cartoon" was used for a funny, satirical drawing.
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An animated cartoon horse. This was drawn using a technique called rotoscoping, based on photos from the 1800s by Eadweard Muybridge.
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See also
In Spanish: Dibujo humorístico para niños
