Caitlyn, Author at Mantelpiece

Cartoonist vs. Comic Artist: What’s the Difference?

Cartoonists create images that are frequently amusing and sometimes convey a message, usually in a single frame. Comic book, comic strip, and comic artists also create images, but they combine these images into many frames to construct a story. Cartoonists and Comic artists both represent two genres of art forms. While cartoonists make fun of a situation through their paintings or visual way. Whereas comic artist makes mockery through a particular way of humorous style.

Who are cartoonists?

Cartoonists are artists who mainly draw still or unmovable pictures to amuse, entertain or educate people. This type of illustration is mainly used in the marketing industry, advertisements, newspapers, comic books, novels, books, greeting cards and so on. Cartoon incorporates various subjects in an art form such as politics, drama, sports and so on through the cartoonists’ drawing skills. A cartoonist usually draws a more complicated thing in a humorous and simple way.

Who are Comic Artists?

A comic artist usually designs visual aspects of various types of comics, graphic novels, magazines and so on. They do not typically incorporate text into their comics rather they design the dialogue and story inside the comic strip. They create the illustration in such a way as to describe multiple comic ideas through that only.

Difference between Cartoonist and a Comic artist

Genre

The main difference between these two is the genre as these two art forms belong to completely different genres. The difference in the genre in art form also differentiates the pattern of work form, as well as the two products, will be different also. A comic strip is a single line or more that tells a concise story within two lines whereas a cartoon book consists of a large strip defining the story.

Storytelling

The way of storytelling is another common difference between the two forms. This mostly happens because a cartoonist mainly gives focuses on the piece he is working on or on that particular topic. He conveys specific ideas or thoughts through his works; moreover, cartoonists don’t need to have high storytelling power. Whereas for comic artists storytelling is a part and parcel of their job profile. Because often their aim is to convey a complex narrative through a simple way of storytelling art.

Typical employers

Both of them can also differ as far as types of places are concerned where they get employed. Because cartoonist is free to work in any type of industry like marketing, advertisement and they also can use any type of image, illustration for their professional purpose. Whereas comic artists have to work in only the comic industry where they can work as a freelancer or full-time.

Best Cartoons of the Early Internet

The early internet was a golden time dedicated to cartoons and books. It can be hard to recollect, but the early age of the internet also had memes and jokes shared via voice messages and images. Although it took producers weeks, if not months, to create cartoons and cartoon characters, they were still loved and appreciated by thousands worldwide.

Thanks to the invention of new technologies that have led to faster and more advanced characters in the animated world! Today, it takes a few minutes to design a character and build a story around the character. These new technologies have not changed the fact that early-internet cartoons were still the best and loved by people of all ages.

In this article, let’s walk through the best cartoons produced during the early internet era.

House of Cosbys

We are all aware of the famous series Rick and Morty that set the online world of cartoons aflame when it was released. The Creator of the series, Roiland, also introduced the House of Cosbys in 2005. In this series, a scientist creates a robot that clones Cosby and lives with his other attitudes like data analysis Cosby, curiosity Cosby, etc. Although this cartoon series had to be canceled due to legal complications, it remained in the hearts of many!

Badgers

We cannot possibly move ahead without including Badgers in the list. The series has 12 animated badgers that include characters like mushroom, a driving beat, a dancing snake, etc. The songs from this series were very addicting and were also at the tips of everyone’s tongues.

Ben 10

Ben 10 was a crowd favorite and was introduced to the public as one of the best-animated superhero characters and quickly became famous among kids too. With the catching theme song and versatile animations, it received lots of love from its release in 2005.

Homestart Runner

This animated series is considered the epitome of nostalgia. It was released in the right place, at the right time, and is still regarded as one of the best web cartoons of all time. This cartoon is enjoyed by kids and young adults due to the presence of quirky and tricky characters.

Adventures of Flapjack

This cartoon series strikes the perfect chord between the 2000s cartoons and the ones of this era. The main characters include a whale and two pirates. The catchy story of the three main characters and their adventures attracted young audiences and quickly became one of the beloved series of the era.

Samurai Jack

Once the field of cartoon and animation started catching on, Samurai Jack was considered one of the best American Tv or cartoon series. Although the plot and storyline were simple, the audience was attracted to the advanced animation, sound effects, and direction, which led to the cartoon series’ popularity.

Tips for Successful Comedy Writing

It is a no-brainer that today’s generation goes head over heels over sitcoms. One of the primary reasons for such genres’ popularity is the connection to the audience. The success of Netflix series like The Office, Friends, and many more is due to their humor and out-of-the-world script writing.

Comedy writing is one of the most challenging forms of script writing. This is because the type of comedy you write must affect the audience; if it isn’t funny enough, your script is a flop!

However, the good news is, like any other skill, comedy writing also follows specific techniques that can improve with practice. You can read further to learn the techniques!

What is comedy writing?

According to American stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld, comedy writing is a secret art that is not pursued by many. By definition, comedy writing is a genre of creative writing that is intended to be funny. Although there are a lot of other technicalities involved in comedy writing, the primary intent of this form of writing is to make the audience laugh!

You’re only as good as your last joke!

However, this genre of writing provides ample room for improvement. Hence, there are various ways by which you can improve your humor writing skills.

Build Comedy around characters

A rookie comedy writer may start writing with the premise in mind, which can ultimately backfire during showtime. Although making the audience laugh must be your primary priority, it is not everything! Building characters and emphasizing the stories behind these characters can go a long way in comedy writing.

Exaggrate about a situation

Once you build characters, create situations and build funny stories around the situation. You don’t have to be funny in life to make people laugh! It would be to find a balance between humor and the story in your script that is relatable to the audience.

Practice on others

Humor is a factor that connects the writer and the audience. If you’re writing for a crowd, test your writing on professionals instead of friends and family. You could start with your best joke or punch-line in the first minute when the audience is highly skeptical.

Don’t forget to have fun.

Before you make people laugh, you have to loosen up and stay in the zone. Comedy writing is a difficult genre, and it takes utter dedication and many years of hard work to reach an extent in the field. Hence, at every step, you have to have fun!

Things to avoid in comedy writing

Although no topic is considered off-limits, especially in comedy writing, it is recommended to follow specific unwritten rules to deliver a masterpiece. Some of them are listed below:

It is best to avoid matters of sensitivity.
“Read the room” before writing anything funny. You can create a persona for your audience and stick to it.
It is best to avoid zany and silly elements from your script, as it might create an awkward environment, let alone make people laugh.

Amazing Comic Strip Examples to Inspire Your Ideas

Comic books were a part of everyone’s childhood. The visuals, small stories, and simple English used in the strips have a different fan base.

For those who aren’t aware, comic strips are stories depicted in the form of comics, with tons of visuals and dialogues that keep the readers hooked to their seats. Aside from being an entertainment factor, they’re also a great way to promote literacy. Today, comic strips are also used to discuss social and political issues.

If you’re a comic writer looking for comic strip ideas, you are at the right place. You should continue reading to find some of the best examples to ignite the comedian inside you!

Manga Comic by Akimaro

Akimaro, or Adriana De la Torre, is famous for creating some popular manga comics in recent times. With high-contrast images, dynamic characters, and movement, she has created a remarkable series of manga comics that has become a new teen addition. She mainly makes use of emotion-based illustrations to depict her stories visually.

Social media cartoon by Raul Salazar

Social media is a great platform to grasp ideas for comic strips. For instance, Raul Salazar gained inspiration from #WhatTheFluffChallange on social media for his comic. He aced graphic humor and is also a brand to promote comic strips on social media.

Use Mixed Media by Ariel Olivetti

The growth of comics has grown to such an extent that people are no longer confined to gadgets and pens for illustrations but are also inclined to use watercolors, acrylic colors, etc., to depict their messages. Ariel Olivetti has worked for over 25 years with DC Comics and Marvel to deliver iconic superhero comic strips. Mixed media techniques can help comic strip writers emphasize human figures and enhance their aesthetic appearance in general.

An abstract comic strip by Ana Galvan

Her comics are mainly filled with minimal colors yet are bright and wobbly. She primarily focuses on creating short comic strips that best fit publications and different studios.

Monochrome Visuals by Charles Glaubitz

Charles Glaubitz emphasizes monochromatic comic strips with shadow drawings that create a visual impact on the readers. His comic strips mainly introduce people to play with narration, which also helps keep every scene intact. His comic strips mainly consist of abstract and strange images.

Funny Comic by Liniers

Liniers composes short and funny comic strips mainly built around stories or punchlines. He plays with the readers’ minds by changing the initial assumptions of the story, which has gained immense popularity in illustrating daily cartoons.

Action Strips with Sam Hart

Sam Hart is one of the best in creating iconic comic characters like Robin Hood, Judge Dredd, and many more. He holds expertise in combining the essence of visuals and texts in his comic strips, which turn out to be emotion-filled masterpieces.