The Paupers Bible: The Design Of Cartoon Strips

Comic strips (cartoon strips) are drawings, or a collection of multiple drawings, which tell a story; they are often combined with words to help tell the story, or give the punchline. This form of story telling (through imagery) has existed since Ancient Egyptian times, as well as textiles from medieval Europe. The Paupers Bible is a tradition of picture bibles beginning in the later Middle Ages, which depicts biblical events with words spoken by the characters written in scrolls (Appendix A). This, to some degree, makes them ancestors of the modern cartoon strip, which emerged in North America during the 19th century. Gary Clark is a cartoonist from Brisbane, who produces cartoon strips called 'Swamp'. These original cartoon strips are published
Most cells of the cartoon strip are well balanced. The first three are a good size, and the main character is centred. The speech bubble is above him, and the items being listed below, balancing the layout of these cells. The fourth cell however has some unused space on the left size of the cell. This was put there so the frog is centred, but if does appear to be very empty with the focus on the right half. This unbalances the layout of the last cell. The text is one of the most important parts of this cartoon, as without it, the pictures alone would not make sense. First, the text simply states the obvious, but then in the last cell the punchline "Ducks hate being drawn badly!!" Is written, which is needed for the cartoon to be understandable. The personality of the main character, a teenage frog called Mort, changes significantly throughout the cartoon. At first he is curious, and wonders what happened. Then as the story progresses, he becomes more and more worried until he figures out what has happened. In the last cell his expression is the most worried. The personality of the duck has been portrayed as being evil, or mean. Through the cartoon it is shown that the duck dragged the artist into the water, and it can be assumed that the artist was drowned. This makes the duck an evil character. However, he could also just be very sensitive, and was upset and hurt by the way he was