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Strip art

A great stress buster Photo:Bhagya Prakash_K

Reading comics

“Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you’re just a reflection of him?” , “Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

Now, where can one find savvy quotes like these? A book of quotations? A website? No! The answer is “Comic strips”.

The Yellow Kid, a bald, beaver-toothed urchin with a yellow frock by Richard Felton Outcault, was the first-ever comic-strip character created. The yellow kid, spoke through his robe; that contained sentences that he wanted to articulate.

Comics as a mass medium began in the United Kingdom in 1884, with the publication of Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday. Speech balloons, an integral part of the comic strips were added almost immediately, as early as 1896.

The 1920s and 1930s saw a boom in the comics industry. In China, palm-sized picture books like Lianhuanhua became popular, while comic-strip authors in Britain were entrancing children with popular children’s comics like The Dandy and The Beano. In Belgium, Hergé created the Tintin newspaper strip for a comic supplement, and till date Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Thomson and Thompson are still keeping us entertained. Meanwhile, in the United States newspaper strips expanded their realm with action, adventure and mystery strips, hogging the limelight alongside strips filled with humour. Although the genre of comic books nearly became non-existent in the 1950s, the mid-1960s saw its revival. Popular comics like Peanuts, The adventures of Asterix, Tiger, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Heathcliff and Dennis the Menace helped the comics industry flourish towards the later part of the 20th century.

A majority of the authentic newspaper comic strips have found their respective places in the World Wide Web. Comic strips have retained their flavour and they still charm newspaper readers.

“Comics are works of sheer geniuses. These blocks of colours and speech bubbles have influenced me more than most philosophies have. Be it the foxy plots of Calvin, the sarcasm of Garfield or the day-saving acts of the Justice League, comics have never failed to beguile me and never will”, says Sharanyan, a college student. Vernacular dailies and magazines carry comic strips in local languages, which continue to the entertain masses. Comics, when it comes to entertaining readers, have established the fact that age is no bar. “A dose of comic strips every morning is mandatory for me to spice up my day. Whenever I feel stressed out at work, I read a couple of comic strips before I get back to my job. Comics are my stress-busters!”, says Latha, a professional.

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