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| Seeing the world in four panels | Seeing the world in four panels |
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| Exclusively for the Magazine, Phill Jupitus's history of the four-panel stripEnlarge Image | Exclusively for the Magazine, Phill Jupitus's history of the four-panel stripEnlarge Image |
| Forget the front page of the newspaper, you can get all the cultural, social, and political insight you need from the classic four-panel cartoon strip at the back. Here comedian and self-taught artist Phill Jupitus (right) draws a four-panel history of the art form, while the genre's leading proponents explain how it's done. | Forget the front page of the newspaper, you can get all the cultural, social, and political insight you need from the classic four-panel cartoon strip at the back. Here comedian and self-taught artist Phill Jupitus (right) draws a four-panel history of the art form, while the genre's leading proponents explain how it's done. |
| For as long as there has been the concept of daily newspapers, there has been the political cartoon. And in the 20th Century there has been a natural symbiosis between the modern newspaper and one particular form of cartoon, the four-panel strip. | For as long as there has been the concept of daily newspapers, there has been the political cartoon. And in the 20th Century there has been a natural symbiosis between the modern newspaper and one particular form of cartoon, the four-panel strip. |
| FIND OUT MORE... Phill Jupitus' Comic Love, is on Radio 4 on Saturday, 1030 BSTOr catch up at Radio 4's Listen Again site | FIND OUT MORE... Phill Jupitus' Comic Love, is on Radio 4 on Saturday, 1030 BSTOr catch up at Radio 4's Listen Again site |
| One classic example is Alex, who appears on the front of the Daily Telegraph's pull-out business section. Alex is a merchant banker in the City - arrogant and selfish, with a wimp of a sidekick in his colleague Clive. | One classic example is Alex, who appears on the front of the Daily Telegraph's pull-out business section. Alex is a merchant banker in the City - arrogant and selfish, with a wimp of a sidekick in his colleague Clive. |
| The format, as co-creator Russell Taylor explains, is simple. | The format, as co-creator Russell Taylor explains, is simple. |
| "You set up the expectation in the first frame, where they are, then you have two frames of normally quite ambiguous language which appear to send you one way, and then there's the last frame and, no, you're completely wrong. Actually they were talking about something completely different." | "You set up the expectation in the first frame, where they are, then you have two frames of normally quite ambiguous language which appear to send you one way, and then there's the last frame and, no, you're completely wrong. Actually they were talking about something completely different." |
| With the most successful newspaper strips running for decades, there is a chance to develop characters to reflect changing times, suggests fellow Alex creator Charles Peattie. | With the most successful newspaper strips running for decades, there is a chance to develop characters to reflect changing times, suggests fellow Alex creator Charles Peattie. |
| "When it started it was like Alex the yuppie, and we didn't think it would last very long, but the economy's become the story, it's constantly on the front pages and they talk about that even more than the ideological stuff." | "When it started it was like Alex the yuppie, and we didn't think it would last very long, but the economy's become the story, it's constantly on the front pages and they talk about that even more than the ideological stuff." |
| The pair garner inspiration from furtive lunches with contacts in the City. | |
| The strip is an idiosyncratic window on the news. Artists like Garry Trudeau - creator of US satirical strip Doonesbury - use it as a platform to highlight issues that people may pass over as they read the drier editorial sections of the newspaper. | The strip is an idiosyncratic window on the news. Artists like Garry Trudeau - creator of US satirical strip Doonesbury - use it as a platform to highlight issues that people may pass over as they read the drier editorial sections of the newspaper. |
| Cartoons as newsy political satire goes back hundreds of years | Cartoons as newsy political satire goes back hundreds of years |
| "There is the advantage of emotional involvement," says Trudeau. "That the readers come to care about the characters and thus their points of view may resonate a little more strongly. People get involved in a way that they might not with a columnist say." | "There is the advantage of emotional involvement," says Trudeau. "That the readers come to care about the characters and thus their points of view may resonate a little more strongly. People get involved in a way that they might not with a columnist say." |
| In 2004, Trudeau caused a huge furore when he simply used his space to list the US war dead. He had already drawn national attention to returning amputees by making one of his characters BD lose a limb in a skirmish in Iraq. | In 2004, Trudeau caused a huge furore when he simply used his space to list the US war dead. He had already drawn national attention to returning amputees by making one of his characters BD lose a limb in a skirmish in Iraq. |
| Doonesbury is published in 1,500 newspapers in the US and around the world, including the Guardian. In 1975, US President Gerald Ford recognised its influence saying: "There are only three major vehicles to keep us informed as to what is going on in Washington: the electronic media, the print media, and Doonesbury⦠not necessarily in that order." | |
| Golden age | Golden age |
| At times like the Watergate scandal it has thrived, with Trudeau describing the resignation of Richard Nixon as "a very tragic day for people in my profession". | At times like the Watergate scandal it has thrived, with Trudeau describing the resignation of Richard Nixon as "a very tragic day for people in my profession". |
| "Watergate had all of us in its thrall," says Trudeau. "The news weeklies were filled with editorial cartoons. It was a kind of golden period for political cartooning. There was something new every day. | "Watergate had all of us in its thrall," says Trudeau. "The news weeklies were filled with editorial cartoons. It was a kind of golden period for political cartooning. There was something new every day. |
| If the words don't have that nice cadence to them, you almost lose the gag because your reader has to read through to the end without a stumbling block Lynn Johnston | If the words don't have that nice cadence to them, you almost lose the gag because your reader has to read through to the end without a stumbling block Lynn Johnston |
| "In my medium, which was syndicated strips, it was problematic because at the time, the convention was you work six weeks in advance and there was a new high level official resigning every week and that became a problem and my deadline kept shrinking - four weeks, three weeks, two weeks and finally by the end of that period I had a one week lead which is what I have to this day." | "In my medium, which was syndicated strips, it was problematic because at the time, the convention was you work six weeks in advance and there was a new high level official resigning every week and that became a problem and my deadline kept shrinking - four weeks, three weeks, two weeks and finally by the end of that period I had a one week lead which is what I have to this day." |
| Of course, not all classic newspaper strips are overtly political. | Of course, not all classic newspaper strips are overtly political. |
| Canadian Lynn Johnston has been chronicling the daily lives and problems of a family called the Pattersons in her strip For Better or For Worse almost every day for nearly 30 years. The strip is massive, syndicated in 2,000 newspapers in 20 countries. | |
| For her, the four-panel strip provides an extremely creative medium. | For her, the four-panel strip provides an extremely creative medium. |
| "It's four little windows and four camera angles. And the way I work, I time it more or less the way you time a stage play and I draw everything out in pencil first which for me is like drawing a ghost which is all soft and loose and transparent and then when I ink everything it's almost like touching the side of the face when you touch it with your pen, and drawing the hair it feels like you're really drawing the hair. | "It's four little windows and four camera angles. And the way I work, I time it more or less the way you time a stage play and I draw everything out in pencil first which for me is like drawing a ghost which is all soft and loose and transparent and then when I ink everything it's almost like touching the side of the face when you touch it with your pen, and drawing the hair it feels like you're really drawing the hair. |
| "It's a magic, you really have to see it happen, it sort of flows out from your head to your hands." | "It's a magic, you really have to see it happen, it sort of flows out from your head to your hands." |
| And of course as well as the drawn art, there is the art of words. | And of course as well as the drawn art, there is the art of words. |
| "You need an economy of words when you're doing this type of thing," says Johnston, "because if you run too long or too short of if the words don't have that nice cadence to them, you almost lose the gag because your reader has to read through to the end without a stumbling block." | "You need an economy of words when you're doing this type of thing," says Johnston, "because if you run too long or too short of if the words don't have that nice cadence to them, you almost lose the gag because your reader has to read through to the end without a stumbling block." |
| And that lack of a stumbling block is one of the reasons the four-panel strip remains such a powerful medium. | And that lack of a stumbling block is one of the reasons the four-panel strip remains such a powerful medium. |
| Send us your comments using the form below. | Send us your comments using the form below. |