Cartoon vs Comic Strip

I didn't realize how radical Jackie Ormes was until I understood what the difference between editorial cartoons and comics strips were. From what I understood in class, editorial cartoons differ from comic strips in that they are each made up of a single panel and focus on critiquing moral corruption and ills of current events. Comic strips and comics in general focus on storytelling through sequential images and developing plot and characters. One of the main ideas we're supposed to take from this class is that comics focus on storytelling, but I felt that it wasn't emphasized enough in class today. This article helped me clarify the differences between cartoonists and comic artists: http://work.chron.com/differences-between-cartoonist-comic-artist-26287.html

We have only read comic strips or comics so far in class, and this is the only week we are learning about editorial cartoons. I think that it is important that we touch on this subject because editorial cartoons and comics come from the same medium but leave with different goals or outcomes. Most of the comic strips and comics that we have read sometimes bring up important issues of the day such as The Blue Lotus where Tintin goes into a monologue about how Europeans stereotype the Chinese. Wonder Woman occasionally brought up specific issues regarding women's rights, but most of the discussion about women's rights and female representation were from her background story which included her creator, William Moulton Marston.

However, Jackie Ormes was more explicit in her comic strips, creating a black female protagonist to challenge problems in society. Not only was she the first African American woman cartoonist but she did this before Wonder Woman was in the picture. I like to call Jackie Ormes' products "a clichè done well." Her stylings and genre match up to what was expected in that time period (e.g. drawing style of Torchy Brown like pin up, Torchy Brown Heartbeats is a romance genre), yet she mixes things up by not only making the protagonist female but also African American who confronts current issues. She continued this pretty well in her editorial cartoons with Patty Jo & Ginger.