A gag-a-day
comic strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...
is the style of writing comic cartoons such that every installment of a strip delivers a complete joke or some other kind of artistic statement. It is opposed to story or continuity strips, which rely on the development of a story line across a sequence of the installments. Most
syndicated comics are of this type.
[''The Art of Cartooning & Illustration'', 2014, ]
p.98
/ref> Another term for this distinction is non-serial (gag-a-day) vs. serial strips
Serial may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media The presentation of works in sequential segments
* Serial (literature), serialised literature in print
* Serial (publishing), periodical publications and newspapers
* Serial (radio and televisio ...
.
Compared to single-panel cartoons ("gag panel
A gag cartoon (also panel cartoon, single-panel cartoon, or gag panel) is most often a single- panel cartoon, usually including a caption beneath the drawing. In some cases, dialogue may appear in speech balloons, following the common convention ...
s"), gag-a-day comic strips can deliver a better timing for the narrative of a joke.[
The distinction between continuity and gag-a-day strip may be blurred: a continuous story may still be delivered in the gag-a-day format.][ In fact, ]Lynn Johnston
Lynn Johnston (born May 28, 1947) is a Canadian cartoonist and author, best known for her newspaper comic strip '' For Better or For Worse''. She was the first woman and first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award.
...
recommends it for story strips, to keep the readership and engage new audience which may be not very familiar with the background of the story.[''Cartoon Success Secrets: A Tribute to 30 Years of Cartoonist Profiles'']
p. 311
See also
* ''Yonkoma
is a comic strip format that generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2×2 style, depending on the layout requiremen ...
'' - A four-panel comic strip format often used for gag-a-day cartoons
References
Comic strips
Comics formats
Comics genres
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