Forms

Forms

Carl Barks, Donald Duck comics artist, signing autographs in 1994.

Comics have been presented within a wide number of publishing and typographical formats, from the very short panel cartoon to the more lengthy graphic novel. The cartoon, traditionally containingsatirical or humorous content in the manner of those seen in The New Yorker or Private Eye, originate from the mid nineteenth century. This form of comics is still popular, although the last few years has seen a reduction in the number of editorial cartoonists employed in the US media.Although there is some dispute as to whether the cartoon constitutes a form of comics, a precursor or a related form, it has been argued that since the cartoon both combines words with image and constructs a narrative, it merits inclusion as a form of comics.

The comic strip is simply a sequence of cartoons which unite to tell a story within that sequence, and were originally known as strip cartoons. Originally the term comic strip was used to apply to any sequence of cartoons, no matter the venue of publication or length of the sequence, but now, mainly in the United States, the term refers to the strips published in newspapers. These strips are now typically humorous or satirical strips, such as Hägar the Horrible and Doonesbury, but have often been action themed, educational or even biographical. In the United States the term "comics" is sometimes used to describe the page of a newspaper upon which comic strips are found, with the term "comic" quickly adopting through popular usage to refer to the form rather than the content. Said pages are also referred to as the "funny pages", and comics are hence sometimes called "the funnies". In the United Kingdom, the term comic strip is still applied to the longer stories which appear in comics such as 2000 AD or The Beano