A visual text, usually a single panel or short strip, that uses exaggeration, symbolism, and satire to comment on a social, political, or cultural issue.
Acartoon or comic is a visual text that uses drawings, panels, speech bubbles, captions, and visual symbols to communicate meaning.
Unlike prose texts, cartoons require the reader to interpret visual choices (line, colour, composition, scale) alongside any written text.
Editorial cartoons use caricature (exaggerated physical features), symbolism (objects representing ideas), and satire (mocking through humour) to comment on political or social issues.
Comics usesequential panels to create narrative. The reader fills in what happens between panels (the gutter), making them active participants in meaning-making.
The key analytical skill is treating every visual choice as deliberate: line thickness, colour, panel size, character scale, and spatial arrangement all carry meaning.
Interactive question
What is the 'gutter' in a comic?
Markscheme
The gutter is the space between panels where the reader fills in the action, making them an active participant in the narrative [1]
Active recall
What three techniques do editorial cartoons use?
What does it mean to treat every visual choice as deliberate?
How do speech bubbles and captions interact with drawn images?
