National Cartoonists Day illustrates America's love for humor
Monday is National Cartoonists Day. Families can celebrate by turning to the "funny pages" or sitting down to watch a cartoon together.
While parents often lament the amount of time kids spend watching cartoons and reading comic books or graphic novels, there is truth in jest. A reasonable amount of cartoons 鈥� both print and TV 鈥� should be a part of a child鈥檚 daily diet.
Each May 5, we honor all cartoonists, past and present, for the humor and insights they have brought into our lives. This day celebrates the first color cartoons ever published in America.
According to , it all began with the newspaper wars at the turn of the century, when color-printed comics were used to boost newspaper circulation.聽
The works of illustrator Richard Outcault's one-panel comic "Hogan's Alley" in 1889 gave birth to the first modern comic strip character, The Yellow Kid, in 1894, according to Duke.
Although Mr. Outcault鈥檚 cartoons appeared in Joseph Pulitzer's聽New York World first, competitor William Randolph Hearst hired the cartoonist right out from under Mr. Pulitzer and "The Yellow Kid" made聽its debut in Hearst's聽聽in 1895, according to Duke鈥檚 online library.
The precursors to modern comics were the satirical works of artists such as Rodolphe T枚pffer, Wilhelm Busch, and Angelo Agostini (who is considered the first Brazilian comic artist).
Comic strips often punctuate family conversations with laughter and little 鈥済otcha鈥� moments when someone鈥檚 true nature is captured in ink.
As a kid, I lived for the next installation of the comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles Schulz and related to the trials of Charlie Brown, the mess of Pig-Pen, the overbearingness of Lucy, and the thumb-sucking wisdom of Linus.
My mom still cuts out comic strips and mails them to me and my four sons as a means of communication.
Once a week, an envelope arrives filled with all the 鈥渇unnies鈥� she spotted and related to her grandsons.
The teenager in the comic Zits is so much like my son Ian, 18, that whenever I want to communicate with him about the state of his room, hair, or driving skills, I cut out the appropriate strip.
Today, when I can鈥檛 find a favorite comic in the ever diminishing pages of the newspaper, the kids and I turn to online sources such as for our fix.
For our family, the 鈥渇unnies鈥� have been a way to start conversations about things nobody wants to talk about 鈥� be it cleaning your room or dating.
For all four of my sons, comics have been the gateway to enjoying reading in general.
My tactic has been to read the comics to them. They learned to read and we read together. Then, the boys read the funnies on their own, often aloud at the breakfast table.
Back in January, our local paper announced it was reducing its comics offering by one strip and asked readers to vote for the one that had to go.
My son, Quin, 10, took this very seriously.
He made lists of pros and cons for each strip and sent in his choice to the editor along with some choice words for how they 鈥渟hould leave out some of the bad news and make room for comics.鈥�
I shot of Quin in his struggles at the time.
The newspaper ended up cutting one of Quin鈥檚 favorite strips. He will never forgive them.
Quin has a very special relationship with cartoons as his bridge to a world he often finds hard to grasp, both logically and emotionally.
The Cartoon Network show "Foster鈥檚 Home for Imaginary Friends" was one of the very first instances when Quin, at age 3, connected with the outside world in a meaningful way via the character Coco.
Coco is an imaginary friend who is part airplane, part bird, and part palm tree.
She says the word 鈥渃oco鈥� in place of every word in the English language and yet, via inflection and body language, is perfectly understood by those around her.
Quin didn鈥檛 speak more than two words until he was older than age 3. Like Coco, he used a few words in place of all others and repeated them 鈥淐oco-style鈥� with various inflections.
One day, he sat with his brothers watching an episode called 鈥淢y So-called Wife鈥� in which Coco must pretend to be married to Mr. Herriman (a giant rabbit) and be sophisticated, speaking properly, at an event with a potential benefactor.
Mr. Herriman comes up with the plan of asking only questions that would result in the answer, 鈥渃oco.鈥�
Q: 鈥淲hat is your favorite drink?鈥�
A: 鈥淐oco!鈥�
Q: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 your favorite shade of brown?鈥�
A: 鈥淐oco!鈥�
Q: 鈥淲ho鈥檚 your favorite gorilla who knows sign language?鈥�
A: 鈥淐oco!鈥�
Quin was in love. His new word became 鈥渃oco.鈥�
I ended up writing a thank you letter to the cartoon鈥檚 creator, Craig McCracken.
Mr. McCracken responded by sending Quin a sketch of Coco dressed in Quin鈥檚 favorite crazy hat and a bunch of Foster鈥檚 Home action figures.
We took the toys to the speech therapist and Quin began relating to all the Foster鈥檚 characters and using the cartoon toys in play where he tried doing all their voices and saying new things.
While there are plenty of cartoons out there that are not high caliber, parents can still find plenty of reasons to read and watch the good ones with kids today.
