Comics

Comics, also known as comic strips, funnies, printed cartoon art, or comic(s) art, have been a key element of the newspaper business since the end of the nineteenth century. They are an important reason for the economic success of many newspapers entering the modern age, a socialization device for both newspaper reading and social mores, an economic and cultural force outside of the newspaper industry, and currently viewed as a way to attract and maintain a youth readership. The future of the comics, similar to the future of the newspaper medium, is unclear.

Comics have long been part of the fabric of American culture and everyday life. Newspaper editors face a serious dilemma when dropping or adding a strip, given the loyalty readers may feel—and express—toward particular comics. Many Sunday family rituals involve reading the color comics section, and the continuing exposure to daily comics characters have touched successive generations of fans to a more enduring degree than virtually any other medium. Major character and plot developments, including character deaths [Page 323](Mary Gold in The Gumps or the family dog Farley in For Better or For Worse), weddings (Dick Tracy to Tess Trueheart), or trauma (B.D.'s loss of a leg in the Iraq war in Doonesbury) often spark deep emotional reactions in readers. Comic-strip characters and phrases have transcended the medium to the point where their comic-strip origin is not universally known. Characters such as Buster Brown, Little Orphan Annie, and Popeye, although beginning as comic strips, are perhaps better known for their cultural presence in other forms (in the above cases, as a shoe brand, Broadway musical, and film/TV character, respectively). Moreover, comic strips have popularized, if not wholly created, familiar words and phrases in the American lexicon such as “keeping up with the Joneses,” jeep, Sadie Hawkins Day, security blanket, hot dog, and baloney.