What is a cartoon?

Cartoon History

If you want to understand what cartoon is, then you might as well start with the origin of the word "cartoon".

Cartoon is the Chinese transliteration of the English "cartoon". There are two different opinions on the etymology of this word: one is that it comes from the French "carton" (picture); the other is that it comes from the Italian "cartone" (cardboard).

From the etymology of cartoons, we can definitely know that cartoons as an art form first originated in Europe. In modern Europe, there were two important historical conditions that prompted the emergence of cartoons: First, the development of the buds of capitalism strengthened the power of the citizen class and led to major changes in the social structure. Secondly, since the Renaissance movement, free and open artistic concepts have begun to be accepted by society. The interaction of these two conditions caused traditional painting to step down from the altar of the Middle Ages and become closer to the aesthetic trends of the common people, providing a social basis for the emergence of simple and traditional cartoons. At the same time, as a means for citizens to express their demands, cartoons have also been given broader political connotations.

In the Netherlands in the 17th century, painters first appeared in sketches with cartoonish exaggeration. Cartoonists represented by Frenchman Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) developed political cartoons to the level of art. To this day, political cartoons remain an important part of Western popular culture.

In the history of the development of cartoon art, Britain played a very important role. As we all know, the United Kingdom was the first country to establish modern parliamentary democracy, and it was also one of the first countries to enter the industrial revolution. The establishment of democratic politics guaranteed the people's freedom of speech and publication, and provided a social foundation for the development of cartoon art; the rise of the industrial revolution triggered the prosperity of the newspaper and magazine publishing industry, providing material guarantee for the development of cartoon art.

During this period, the more influential cartoonists included William Hoggs (1697-1764), James Gillray (1757-1816) and Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827). Among them, Hogarth's representative works include "The Prodigal Son" and "Harlot's Wanderings", while Rowlandson mainly created "The Journey of a Lifetime of Doctor Sintax". It is worth mentioning that the works of Hoggs and others are no longer traditional single paintings, but have developed into a series of related paintings, which have the prototype of comic strips.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the advent of color printing sparked a revolution in the publishing industry. Accordingly, color comics began to appear in people's field of vision.

In 1901, the famous publisher Harms & Worth established the Associated Publishing Company ("AP" for short) based on the acquisition of several magazines, and successively published "Elf", Comic publications such as Blister, Smile, Rainbow, Tiger Tim Weekly and Jungle Bash. Another publisher, Henderson, also launched magazines such as Fun (1906), Comics World (1909), Wisdom (1910), and Sparkle (1918). Others, such as "Fireworks" published by "Treps and Holmes" and "Grand Transactions" published by Pearson, have been involved in the publication and distribution of color comics to varying degrees. During this period, an important change in British comics journals was that the readers of the publications gradually shifted from adults to children and teenagers. AP Company is the biggest beneficiary of this trend. They successfully launched the cartoon image of "Tiger Tim", making him a favorite cartoon star among children. Its sister work "Bear Doll" also achieved good sales results. In addition, Fox Ware, one of the authors of "Tiger Tim", has also created comic works for girls such as "Tiger Gilly" and "Miss Hippo".

Compared with political cartoons and comics, the development history of cartoons seems to be more legendary. As mentioned before, animation art is an important part of modern film and television art. However, in the "prehistoric stage" of animation and film, the two became one.

It wasn’t until the invention of photography that film and animation began to diverge.

In 1895, the Lumiere brothers in France were the first to show their "movie machine" to the public, and screened films such as "The Train Arrives at the Station" and "The Sea Garden". Modern cinema was born. The first animated film was released ten years later. Part of the reason is due to the high production costs of cartoons. To this day, cartoons are still cultural products that require high investment.

In 1906, J. Stuart Blackton, who worked in Edison's laboratory, produced "The Humorous phases of Funny Faces", which was also the world's first animated videos. Since then, Emile Cohl from France has further developed his animation shooting skills and has produced more than 250 animated short films. At the same time, he was also the first to use the method of matte photography to combine animation and real-life performance. It is precisely because of Cole's outstanding contribution to the development of animation that he is also regarded as the father of contemporary animation.

Another person who had an important influence on the development of early animation was the American Winsor McCay. He was born in Michigan, USA. In his early years, he made a living by drawing posters for circuses and popular theater groups, and later became a newspaper reporter and comic columnist. In 1914, McKay released an animated feature film called Gertie the Dinosaur. The launch of this cartoon changed the previous purely artistic tendency in animation works, organizing stories, characters and live-action performances into interactive plots, and achieved quite good results. And the naive dinosaur Gertie became a famous cartoon star. Following Gertie the Dinosaur, McKay produced The Sinking of the Rustania. It was the first documentary to be animated.

Winsor McKay's success is symbolic. He used his cultivation and accumulation as a cartoonist to create a new animation creation model that emphasizes character creation, story structure and popular interest. After McKay, American animators began to follow a very different path from their European counterparts. A cartoon era belonging to the New World is coming.

Cartoon Empire

In the first half of the twentieth century, the development level of American cartoon art was in a leading position in the world. There is no doubt that this leadership is all-round.

As early as 1840, Boston's DC Johnston Company published a single-page illustrated magazine called "Cresper", which may be the earliest cartoon to appear in the United States. Since then, with the continuous influx of European immigrants, cartoon art originally popular in Europe also began to arrive in the United States.

In 1880, American newspaper tycoon Pulitzer added a Sunday special edition to his New York World newspaper and added a cartoon column to it. Soon thereafter, another newspaper giant, Hearst, also began regularly publishing cartoons in his own publications such as New York Magazine and American Humor. This means that the role of cartoons in increasing newspaper circulation has been widely recognized. The strong intervention of the above-mentioned two major newspaper groups undoubtedly injected a booster into American cartoons, which were still in their infancy. Since then, the development of American cartoons has entered the fast lane.

In 1895, the comic series "Yellow Kid" (Yellow Kid) created by the famous cartoonist R.F. Outcault began to be published in the "New York World" founded by Pulitzer published. But not long after, Outcott took the "yellow kid" with him to Hearst's "New York Journal". The original name of the "Yellow Kid" series was "Hogan's Alley". The protagonist of the story is a six or seven-year-old kid named "Mickey Dugan" who wears dirty pajamas and has a big head. Actually, the pajamas were blue in the beginning.

By 1896, due to the application of a new technology that made it easy to dye paper yellow, Dugan also changed into yellow clothes. Later, Outcott added dialogue from the protagonist of the story to the comic to make it easier for everyone to understand the theme of the story. This also makes "The Yellow Child" a veritable comic strip. Since the image of "yellow children" has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, smart businessmen have developed a large number of peripheral products related to "yellow children" based on this image, including toys, statues, advertising posters, etc. Although "Yellow Children" also experienced many twists and turns, in 1902, the seventh year after its first appearance, the "Yellow Children" series was finally published as a single volume. It should be pointed out that the success of "The Yellow Kid" not only promoted the development of American cartoons, but also provided a classic paradigm for the commercial operation of comic works.

Throughout the early 20th century, cartoons were always looking for intersections with American culture. In the process, many excellent works and unforgettable cartoon images were produced. However, it was not until the early 1930s that the golden age of American cartoons truly arrived.

There is such an incisive description of the "Golden Age": The golden age of American comics was the era when superheroes were rampant in cheap illustrated magazines. As we all know, many superhero images such as SUPER MAN, BATMAN, FLASH, AQUA MAN, etc. were produced during this period. The common feature of these superheroes is that they have bodies like bodybuilders and superpowers that ordinary people cannot possess. They constantly defeat evil and powerful enemies and save the world. Among them, the most representative and continuously influential ones are probably Superman and Batman.

The protagonist of "Superman" is Clark, an alien with superpowers from the planet Krypton. When he was still a baby, he came to Earth from Krypton in a spaceship and was adopted by the kind-hearted Kent couple. As he grew up, he began to discover that he had superpowers that people on earth did not have. In order to conceal his identity, Clark came to the metropolis from a remote town and worked as an editor at the "Daily Planet", where he met the young and beautiful female reporter Louise. From then on, whenever the safety and order of the city are threatened by evil forces, there will always be a flying hero in a cloak and tights who will appear in time to save those in crisis. However, in most cases, Superman's main mission is to save the beautiful.

The "Superman" series was first published in the first issue of "ACTION COMICS" and quickly became popular throughout the United States. On January 16, 1939, "Superman" began to be serialized in newspapers. By 1941, more than 300 newspapers were serializing Superman comics on a daily basis. Cartoons, movies and TV series with "Superman" as the theme have emerged in endlessly in the next half century. It is no exaggeration to say that "Superman" has become a symbol of the times.

Almost at the same time that Superman achieved success, another superhero from the "Golden Age", Batman, also came into people's view.

Batman’s original name is Quinbussy, and he comes from a prominent wealthy family. When he was very young, his parents were killed by gangsters and he became an orphan and was raised by a housekeeper. When he grew up, he vowed to fight to eradicate evil. As a result, he became a masked hero in a bat suit. Eliminating violence and punishing those who slip through the law have become his most important mission.

The story of Batman first appeared in the twenty-seventh issue of "Detective Comics" (DETECTIVE COMICS). Compared with Superman, Batman is an ordinary person without superpowers, and this is where his charm lies. The main tools used by Batman to fight evil are various technological inventions, the most famous of which is the universal Batmobile.

Among the many superheroes in the golden age, Wonder Woman (WONDER WOMAN) can be said to be an "alternative".

This is not only because it broke the previous male monopoly on superhero images, but more importantly, her appearance completely restructured the gender order in the cartoon world, making female characters no longer just appendages of male heroes, but truly becoming The protagonist who dominates the story. Therefore, when the "Wonder Woman" series was launched in "ALL STAR COMICS" at the end of 1941, it was warmly welcomed by many female readers.

The emergence of comic book heroes is no accident. In fact, it is the inevitable result of the collision between comic art and American culture. The core of American culture is what is called "individualism." This is a culture that advocates individual struggle and emphasizes the priority of protecting personal interests. Out of this cultural background, especially when the Great Depression and World War II in the 1930s had a severe impact on American society, people admired and longed for "savior" superheroes, viewing them as hope and hope. A symbol of strength. Because such characters cannot be found in the real world, people turn to the fictional world for spiritual sustenance.

During the Second World War, the United States’ social economy not only was not brought down by the war, but achieved unprecedented development and growth. Patriotism inspired by the war became the mainstream of American culture at that time. As a result, superheroes in comics have also joined in the battle to defend the country and oppose the Nazis. The "golden age" has also reached its peak.

As the influence of cartoons in American society increases day by day, the development of American comics has gradually become diversified, with new themes such as educational comics, scientific comics, and Western comics appearing. At the same time, the blind pursuit of profit-maximizing commercial hype has led to a surge in violence, pornography and other undesirable elements in American comics. Some comic publications even boldly indicate "not suitable for children." As a result, the comics industry became the focus of criticism from the public and public opinion, which ultimately led to the decline of the "Golden Age".

In the spring of 1945, Dr. Frederick Weisman's book "Seducing the Innocent" was published. Dr. Weismann was a very influential intellectual in society at that time and a well-known figure in politics. He has always believed that "comics full of violence and dark content are the root cause of juvenile crime and social chaos." Although subsequent investigations showed that most of Dr. Weisman's assertions lacked factual basis, the publication of this book catered to the widespread criticism of the comics industry by mainstream public opinion at the time, so it immediately received support and affirmation from all walks of life. . For a time, comics became super banned books, and people often talked about comics in the same tone as talking about drugs.

In April 1954, the U.S. Senate Juvenile Delinquency Investigation Committee held a public hearing on the impact of comics on teenagers. Dr. Weisman attended as a witness. He claimed: Comics are the main culprit that tarnishes the innocence of children and trigger juvenile delinquency. Compared to comics, Hitler is just a child. "Children are often poisoned by comics from the age of four." He even called for an immediate ban on the sale of comics.

Although this hearing failed to reach a clear conclusion, the Senate ultimately requested the issuance of a censorship standard to eliminate all content in comics that may poison young people and corrupt morals. This is actually a death sentence for the "golden age" in public opinion. Shortly after the Senate hearing, comic publishers established the "American Domestic Comics and Magazines Federation" on October 26, 1954, and established "Federation Internal Inspection Standards" and also required that the cover of comics published thereafter be clearly Indicate the level of restriction.

This is undoubtedly an event that has a profound impact on the American comics industry. Due to this somewhat exaggerated standard, previously best-selling horror and police and gangster comics have almost disappeared; cowboys in Western comics have also had to significantly restrain themselves, with scenes of hand-to-hand combat and gunfights significantly reduced; and even "violence" in funny animal comics His actions also became timid. Many publishing houses and comics publications went bankrupt due to the sharp decline in circulation, and most professional cartoonists had to change careers due to pressure to make ends meet.

Of course, writers of girl comics like Joe Simon, author of "Captain America," also became popular for a time because of the absence of superheroes. However, on the whole, the American comics industry was still severely damaged by this. Although it recovered somewhat in the future, it still failed to regain its former glory.

Compared with the twists and turns of the development of the American comic industry, the American animation industry during the same period has always maintained a strong momentum of development. To review this period of history, we cannot fail to mention Walt Disney and his Disney Company.

In fact, before Walt Disney, the United States already had many outstanding animators, but as a latecomer, Walt was the one who really promoted the leap of the American animation industry. Therefore, we have enough reasons to believe that "Walt Disney is the first master in the history of animation."

In 1923, at the age of 22, Walt Disney bid farewell to his hometown of Kansas and set off for Hollywood to seek development. At that time, Hollywood was a hot spot for entrepreneurship, and movies at this time were still in the silent film stage. As for cartoons, they were just entertainment programs before the movie started. There, he started from scratch and registered "Disney Brothers Animation Production Company" with only 3,200 US dollars. In the year that Walt came to Hollywood, he completed his first animated work - the silent cartoon "Alice in Cartoon Country" starring real people and animated characters.

During the first few years in Hollywood, Disney and his company gradually gained a foothold, but in 1927 Walt suffered the first serious blow to his career. This year, the first popular cartoon character he created, "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit," was taken away by the publishing company through deception, and the company was almost in dire straits. Angry and helpless, Disney set foot on the train back to his hometown of Kansas. However, it was during this trip back home that a lively and cute little mouse appeared in Walter's mind. Later, Walter's wife gave this new cartoon character a resounding name "Mickey Mouse"! This is the cartoon star that will become world-famous and loved by children in all countries - Mickey Mouse.

The emergence of Mickey Mouse has certainly provided Disney with a huge intangible asset. However, for Mickey and his pals to become beloved superstars, Disney still had to come up with novel production concepts. The core of the new concept is to pay attention to plot design and continuous innovation.

Before Disney, cartoons were used as a back-up show before ordinary movies, often focusing only on visual effects and not paying much attention to the arrangement of the storyline. Disney's Mickey Mouse series went in the opposite direction. The plot of the work was carefully arranged in the early stages of production, making the short seven-eight-minute film very fascinating. Coupled with the well-produced pictures, Disney The cartoon immediately surpassed almost all competitors.

In addition to advanced creative concepts, sensitivity to innovation is another trump card of Disney. In the mid-to-late 1920s, cinema bid farewell to the silent film era, and the emergence of sound films triggered a revolution in the entire film industry. Walter was keenly aware of the coming changes and began to try making sound cartoons. On November 18, 1928, "Steamboat Willie", the first sound cartoon with synchronized audio and video in the history of film, premiered at the Colonial Theater in New York City and was a success. In 1932, Disney released the first color cartoon "Flowers and Tree". In addition to the expected buzz, it also won Disney an Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Five years later, in 1937, Disney's first fully animated cartoon feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), which Disney spent several years carefully creating, was released. This is an epoch-making cartoon with milestone significance. And because of the huge commercial success of this work, Disney's production plans began to tilt toward feature films. Then, in 1940, Disney released two animated feature films, "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia".

Among them, "Fantasia" is regarded as a classic of modern cartoons and has received widespread praise since its release. While continuously launching new works, Disney's lineup of cartoon stars is also constantly expanding. In addition to Mickey Mouse, there are new characters such as Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck. It has also appeared in Disney cartoons one after another. With the continuous emergence of outstanding works and cartoon stars, Disney finally established its dominance in the cartoon empire in the early 1940s.

For the entire American animation industry, Disney's success has a huge role in demonstrating and promoting. Due to the expansion of the animation market, many new animation companies have sprung up. At this time, Hollywood has become the center of the animation industry in the United States and even the world. Van Beuren Studio is one of these new animation companies, and it has also gathered a group of outstanding young animators under its umbrella. In the late 1930s, the company launched the famous cartoon series "Tom and Jerry" and achieved success. Another influential animation production organization is the animation department founded by Warner Production Company in 1934. Its main works include: "Porky and Beans", "Daffy Duck", and "Bonnie Rabbit" (Bugs Bunny) and other cartoon series. Like Disney's Mickey Mouse, they are also well-known cartoon stars.

However, amid Disney's brilliant success, crisis is also quietly brewing. When it was first established, Disney used art and creativity as its creed to recruit a large number of first-class animation talents. However, as the company continues to grow and develop, Disney's artistic style has gradually become fixed, and catering to the needs of the audience and the market has become the basis and prerequisite for program production. More importantly, Disney employees increasingly felt that the company's prosperity did not bring them the expected revenue growth, and dissatisfaction began to spread within Disney. In the early 1940s, animators affiliated with the Disney Company began to prepare for the establishment of a union, hoping to confront the company's top management and strive for higher pay. However, the attitude of the top management seemed to be tougher than expected, which also triggered a protracted "war of words." In the end, many of the company's business backbones left in frustration and formed a partnership called United Productions of America (UPA).

Although they experienced many twists and turns, Walt Disney and his company were still the undeniable winners of that era. Today's Disney has become a worldwide "entertainment kingdom", which also proves from another perspective that Walt's ideals and success are ahead of the times.

All in all, during this period, both the American comics industry and the animation industry have made great progress. It is worth noting that during this development process, the American entertainment industry has formed a complete business operation system around cartoon products, realizing a virtuous cycle of cartoon development. It is on this basis that "American cartoons" have been able to expand globally and become a cultural force that cannot be underestimated.

The New Wave of Cartoons

Before and after World War II, although European and American cartoon products still occupied the mainstream of the world cartoon market, due to changes in economic society and popular culture, cartoon art had a global impact. The development has also shown an unprecedented all-round and diversified development trend. It is undeniable that a new wave of cartoon industry is emerging and will sweep the world.

While American cartoons are embarking on the road of commercialization, European cartoonists and animators seem to still stick to their inherent artistic concepts. But even so, the European cartoons of this period are by no means short of classics.

In Germany, during this period there emerged a cartoon master with world influence, E. O. Braun.

Braun's original name was Erice Ossel, and he was born in a remote town in Saxony, Germany. Later, due to a job change, Erici's father moved his family to Braun, the capital of the Vogtland Mountains. The reason why Erici used "Braun" as his pen name was also out of nostalgia for this city. Between 1921 and 1933, Erisi published a large number of cartoons as a painter, and also illustrated many works of his close friend, the writer Erisi Kastner. However, with the rise of the Nazi Party to power, Germany's sociopolitical climate quickly shifted to the right. Dissatisfied with the perverse behavior of the Nazi Party, Erici created some cartoons that satirized the Nazi Party. As a result, he attracted the hatred of Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels and others. Ellisi's comics were once banned.

Later, because the "Berlin Illustrated" at that time needed an artist who could draw comic strips, Dr. Kurt Kusenberg, the famous writer, publisher and editor in charge of this matter, found Einstein. Risi Ossel, I hope he can take on this job. In the end, due to the active dealings of Berliner Illustrated, the Nazi authorities lifted the ban on Erici, but attached a series of harsh censorship conditions and absolutely prohibited any political content in his works.

Despite this, Erici completed more than 200 sets of works between 1934 and 1937, which is also the famous "Father and Son" comic series. During the years when fascism was rampant, this set of comics was like an oasis of humanity and became the best spiritual comfort for the German people when they faced the cruel reality of life, thus winning the love of many people. "Fathers and Sons" was hailed as a symbol of German humor, and its reputation quickly crossed national borders.

In 1929, Belgian cartoonist Hergé began creating the "The Adventures of Tintin" series. From then until Hergé's death in March 1983, more than twenty volumes of "The Adventures of Tintin" were completed. In 1986, "Tintin and the Art of Alpha", the last work that Hergé failed to complete during his lifetime, was published, thus ending the Tintin series. Critics generally believe that the success of the Tintin series should be attributed to the author's full attention to the organic combination of the main story line and the real background. Therefore, Hergé is also known as a "comic journalist". In any case, due to its blend of documentary style and humorous creative elements, the Tintin series has become one of the most outstanding works in the history of comics, and Hergé has therefore entered the ranks of comic masters.

While American animators are enjoying the "golden age", European animators are still committed to the path of experimentation and artistry. This is evident from the two's use of synchronized sound technology. In the United States, character voices are mainly used to show the characteristics and personality of the characters; in Europe, sound effects are used as "material" for experiments. In fact, European animators have almost taken the coordination between pictures and sound effects in cartoons to the extreme.

Perhaps no one would have thought that the outbreak of World War II gave the European animation industry an opportunity to "resurgence". Due to the impact of the war, the originally connected world cartoon market was divided into several pieces, which objectively stimulated the independent development of the cartoon industry in various countries.

In wartime Britain, the newly established "Harrah's and Bachelard" animation company was commissioned by the British authorities to produce more than 70 animated propaganda short films to support the war. These short films were shown in cinemas and theaters across the UK and played a positive role in boosting the morale of the British people.

Compared with Western European countries, the animation industry in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union lags behind slightly, but it has its own style and system. Alexander Baskin, the Brampage sisters, etc. are all outstanding representatives of the animation industry in the former Soviet Union. Among them, the Brampage sisters completed "Chinese on Fire" (Chinese on Fire) in 1925 and are even more well-known to Chinese audiences.

Let’s go back to the United States. The diverse styles that emerged at the end of the "Golden Age" were inherited by a new generation of American cartoonists, resulting in many excellent cartoons.

On October 2, 1950, the famous American cartoonist Charles Schulz began publishing his "Peanuts" comic series (PEANUTS). In the fifty years since then, the Peanuts series has achieved unprecedented success, being translated into 21 languages ??and published in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries.

As time goes by, the impact of the "Weissmann Incident" gradually fades, and superhero stories begin to return to American life. In 1956, in the fourth issue of Show magazine, a new generation of "The Flash" debuted, marking the return of superheroes. Since then, most of the heroes of the "Golden Age" have returned to the world, and a new generation of superheroes has continued to emerge, including "Spider-Man" who debuted in 1962 and "The Wolfman" who debuted in 1974. (WOLERINE), and the appearance of "Ghost Rider" (GHOST RIDER) in the early 1990s, etc.

Today, the annual output value of the American comic industry is around US$2.3 billion. Although it is still quite limited in absolute scale, the profit margin is considerable.

In the post-war American animation industry, Disney's dominance was still unrivaled. Throughout the 1950s, the Disney Company successively launched "Cinderella", "Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan" and other children's theme works, which not only continued the reputation of Disney animation, but also achieved good box office performance .

While achieving success in the animation field, Walter boldly led his company into the amusement park industry. In 1955, Walt built the world's first theme park, Disneyland, in Los Angeles on the West Coast. Today, Disney parks scattered around the world have become an eternal paradise in the hearts of cartoon-loving people around the world.

While established animation companies like Disney adhere to traditional animation concepts, small animation companies represented by UPA are beginning to experiment with the production concept of "limited animation". They no longer pursue the high-cost, large-scale gorgeous scenes similar to Disney cartoons, but instead adopt low-cost production strategies and make up for visual deficiencies through elaborate storyline design and sound effects.

At the end of the twentieth century, with the rise of computer multimedia technology, the production and production of cartoons faced a new revolution. Disney once again acted as a trendsetter in new technologies, launching a series of large-scale animated blockbusters, including "The Little Mermaid" (1990), based on Andersen's fairy tales, and "Tales of One Thousand and One Nights" (1992), based on the Arabic classic. ), "The Lion King" (1994) based on Shakespeare's masterpiece, "Pocahontas" (1995), which reflects early colonial life in North America, and "Toy Story", the first animated film entirely produced using digital technology, etc. .