In today’s world, kids and cartoons pretty much go hand in hand, but you might be surprised to find out that the first cartoons were not created for kids at all. In fact, the first cartoon-like paintings and drawings can be traced as far back as the time of Leonardo da Vinci - you know, the famous artist who painted the Mona Lisa!

Da Vinci did some paintings and drawings called caricaturas. “Caricature” is the modern word for caricaturas. A caricature is a drawing of a person with facial parts such as the nose or ears exaggerated to make the face look funny or silly.

Caricature is one of the two elements in a political cartoon. A political cartoon is a cartoon about the government. The other element in a political cartoon is allusion. Allusion is the situation, or setting, into which the caricature is placed.

Because many people have very strong opinions about politics, the political cartoon is an effective way to show the public (people like you and me) some of the problems in government.

The value of a cartoon is that in just one picture frame, it can relate an idea that would take hundreds of words to express. In the past few weeks, you probably saw lots of political cartoons leading up to the November 2 election!

In America, the first known cartoon to be published was drawn by Benjamin Franklin in 1754. His very famous cartoon was called Join, or Die. It was a simple drawing created to promote his plan for an intercolonial association.

As cartoons --- especially political cartoons --- evolved, they became very popular because they were a good way to communicate with the many people who were illiterate, meaning that they couldn’t read or write. When someone can’t read or write, communication is much more difficult, but cartoons helped overcome some of those barriers.

It’s hard to pinpoint when illustrations for children and the art forms of caricature and political cartooning merged, but when they did, children became some of the biggest consumers of cartoons around.

Cartoons are very appealing to children because they are simple, feature bright colors and tell funny stories that usually have a pretty good message. Even the youngest children who can’t read or write yet can understand the story told by the pictures.

The element that revolutionized cartoons, however, was animation. Animation is the process by which images of characters are manipulated to make them come to life. Walt Disney was one of the first artists to create animated films.

Although we still don’t know who really invented the cartoon, the fact that it has remained such a visible part of our culture means that it is, and will most likely remain, an effective way to communicate.