The cartoons I have posted on my site are considered single-panel gag cartoons by the industry. (Yes, there is still a cartoon industry!) But when memes came along a couple of years ago, I realized the single panel cartoons I have drawn over the years would fit in that category.
The other day, I came across this article that reinforced my conclusion. While it focuses on political cartoons, it also applies to single-panel, gag cartoons.
Technology has made it possible for nearly anyone to make a single panel gag. No, I don’t mean something so bad it gives you a gag reflex! I mean a gag as in a joke.
Thanks to image programs like Photoshop, and scores of others, anybody can take a photo and add a clever quip to it. I realize this may rub many fellow cartoonists the wrong way. After all, today is nothing like the glory days of magazine gag cartoons in The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, or Esquire. Back then, a magazine cartoonist could earn a living with sales from these magazines.
I don’t think today’s trend is such a bad thing. While anyone can do this, it still takes creativity to match an image with the text. Sure, the cartoon industry has changed and declined. But other industries have gone through similar changes. We learn to adapt and move on.
So a gag cartoon is a meme before there were memes, it seems. It may be strange, but I am fine with that.
