Comic Strip

visual storytelling · humor · cartoons · newspapers

Newspaper tradition. For most of the 1900s, comic strips were the way families got their daily laughs, printed in black-and-white in regular newspapers every single day. Readers would rush to the funny pages to catch the latest adventures of their favorite characters.

Sunday special color. Sunday newspapers got the fancy treatment with longer comic sections printed in full color, letting artists create much bigger and more detailed stories than the small daily strips.

Speech bubbles and captions. Comic strips use word balloons coming out of characters' mouths to show what they're saying, and sometimes captions below the panels to explain what's happening in the story.

Digital comics arrive. When the internet came along, comic strips found a new home as webcomics that people could read online, giving artists new ways to experiment with colors, animations, and storytelling.

Jokes and narratives. Some comic strips are just about making you laugh with quick jokes in each panel, while others tell long, connected stories that keep going for weeks or months.