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—cartoonish, adj. —cartoonist, n./kahr toohn"/, n.1. a sketch or drawing, usually humorous, as in a newspaper or periodical, symbolizing, satirizing, or caricaturing some action, subject, or person of popular interest.2. See comic strip.3. See animated cartoon.4. Fine Arts. a full-scale design for a picture, ornamental motif or pattern, or the like, to be transferred to a fresco, tapestry, etc.adj.5. resembling a cartoon or caricature: The novel is full of predictable, cartoon characters, never believable as real people.v.t.6. to represent by a cartoon.v.i.7. to draw cartoons.[1665-75; < It cartone pasteboard, stout paper, a drawing on such paper, equiv. to cart(a) paper (see CARTE) + -one aug. suffix]
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Originally, a full-size drawing used for transferring a design to a painting, tapestry, or other large work.Cartoons were used from the 15th century by fresco painters and stained-glass artists. In the 19th century the term acquired its popular meaning of a humorous drawing or parody. Cartoons in that sense are used today to convey political commentary, editorial opinion, and social comedy in newspapers and magazines. The greatest early figure is William Hogarth, in 18th-century Britain. In 19th-century France, Honoré Daumier introduced accompanying text that conveyed his characters' unspoken thoughts. Britain's Punch became the foremost 19th-century venue for cartoons; in the 20th century The New Yorker set the American standard. A Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning was established in 1922. See also caricature; comic strip.* * *
▪ pictorial parodyoriginally, and still, a full-size sketch or drawing used as a pattern for a tapestry, painting, mosaic, or other graphic art form, but also, since the early 1840s, a pictorial parody utilizing caricature, satire, and usually humour. Cartoons are used today primarily for conveying political commentary and editorial opinion in newspapers and for social comedy and visual wit in magazines.A brief account of cartoons follows. For full treatment, see Caricature, Cartoon, and Comic Strip (caricature and cartoon); for animated-motion-picture cartoons, see Animation (motion-picture technology).While the caricaturist deals primarily with personal and political satire, the cartoonist treats types and groups in comedies of manners. Though William Hogarth (Hogarth, William) had a few predecessors, it was his social satires and depictions of human foibles that later cartoons were judged against. Honoré Daumier (Daumier, Honoré) anticipated the 20th-century cartoon's balloon-enclosed speech by indicating in texts accompanying his cartoons the characters' unspoken thoughts. Hogarth's engravings and Daumier's lithographs were fairly complete documentaries on the London and Paris of their times.Thomas Rowlandson lampooned the ludicrous behaviour of a whole series of social types, including “Dr. Syntax,” which may well be the grandfather of the later comic strips. Rowlandson was followed by George Cruikshank, a whole dynasty of Punch artists who humorously commented on the passing world, Edward Lear, Thomas Nast, Charles Dana Gibson, and “Spy” (Leslie Ward) and “Ape” (Carlo Pellegrini), the two main cartoonists of Vanity Fair magazine.In the 20th century the one-line joke, or single-panel gag, and the pictorial joke without words matured and a huge diversity of drawing styles proliferated. The influence of The New Yorker magazine spread to other publications worldwide. The new cartoonists included James Thurber, Charles Addams, Saul Steinberg, Peter Arno, and William Hamilton of the United States and Gerard Hoffnung, Fougasse, Anton, and Emett Rowland of England.A Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning was established in 1922, and a Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning was awarded annually after 1942; such cartoonists as Jacob Burck, Herblock, Bill Mauldin, and Rube Goldberg won both. Carl Giles was honoured with the Order of the British Empire in 1959 for his achievements in editorial cartooning.* * *
Universalium. 2010.