Cartoons And Blogs

Who says a blog can’t be humorous? It can be. In fact, it should be regardless of the subject matter tackled. Everybody needs a good laugh. Humor is something that people inherently crave to experience and at the same time want to share and what better way than with cartoons.

A blog is an online diary made up of short, frequently updated entries or posts that are arranged in reverse chronological order. In simple terms, a blog is where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff appears at the top of the blog page where visitors can read them. Readers can either comment on the post, link to it or they may choose not to. Many blogs are personal, “what’s in my mind” type of musings. Many people use blogs to organize personal thoughts. In recent years, blogging has become a phenomenon. It has evolved and now includes blogs that command influence and enjoy a global audience. These successful blogs have become effective channels for millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.

The personality of the blogger is the defining factor whether a blog will succeed or not. Dull and uninteresting blogs will not entice readers. Readers want to be informed but would like to be entertained too. Everybody knows that blogs demand readership to survive. Without readers, what is the purpose of the blog?

Sad to say, many bloggers take themselves and their writing too seriously. They have forgotten, albeit unintentionally, to have fun along the way and engage their readers in an exciting and pleasurable conversation. Sometimes, because of the gravity of the topic under discussion, bloggers tend to overlook that blogging is supposed to be an enriching but enjoyable part of their everyday life and the readers as well. Blogging is meant to be an effective but satisfying communication medium for sharing ideas and relevant information with others. Often times, instead of injecting wit and humor to the blog, the post ends up plain and dry, nothing that stirs interest or even bring a smile to the face of the readers.

You can employ different wonderful ways to make your blog fun and exciting. To break the monotony, you can write lighthearted posts that can also be related to your subject matter. Readers will appreciate a good laugh and can even relax their mind. A number of readers visit blogs not just to be informed about the freshest information but they are also hungry for articles that will tickle their funny bones. To lighten the mood, there are fun things you can do to your blog. You can provide horoscope readings of the stars, the moon, the planet or anything. You can even put a weekly crossword puzzle on your blog. Another idea is to write a comedy monologue detailing the hilarious blunders you committed or anything that will give life to your blog. Perhaps you can even post cartoons or run a series of them; something that your readers can look forward to and provide them with a good laugh. Cartoonists would just be ecstatic to display their work on your blog.

Cartoons are illustrations, usually humorous in nature. Cartoons may also be satirical illustrations of ideas. Caricatures, on the other hand, are satirical illustrations of people mostly famous personalities. Modern gag cartoons are typically published on magazines, newspapers and recently displayed on the Internet. A gag cartoon consists of a single drawing with a caption or speech balloon immediately below the illustration. A very popular take on cartoons are the editorial cartoons. They are variations of gag cartoons found almost exclusively in news publications. They also use humor but on a more serious tone usually using irony or biting wit to expose a vice or folly. The cartoons show a visual metaphor to bring home a point of view on present day and more often than not controversial social and political issues. They also include speech balloons and sometimes multiple panels.

In the United Kingdom, “comic strips” are called “strip cartoons” and are published daily in newspapers. These are basically brief series of cartoon illustrations. In the United States, they are known as “comics” or “funnies”, not cartoons. But the creators of comic strips as well as comic books and graphic novels are all referred to as cartoonists.

Cartoonist Mark Anderson has come up with one-of-a-kind daily cartoon add-ons for bloggers. You can now integrate free daily cartoons into your blog pages. If you want to inject some fun into your blog, you can add an “on topic” cartoon of the day to your blog. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the cartoon add-on is the presentation. Basically, graphic add-ons require a number of configurations. These would necessitate new pages and complicated codes. But Anderson’s cartoon add-ons work as polished thumbnails that can be displayed anywhere within your blog with just a single cut and paste code that allows for easy integration. The cartoon add-ons are often incorporated into the navigation sidebars. Readers can click to enlarge the image. A small new window pops up and shows the full size cartoon without covering or moving away from the original post.

The inventory of cartoon add-ons is refreshed daily so you are assured of new cartoon add-ons everyday. You can choose from an array of categories. This includes business cartoons, family cartoons, animal cartoons and many more. In this way, you can fit the cartoon’s humor to your post topic.

Dave Walker who draws cartoons for “The Church Times” and writes and draws for “The Cartoon Blog” and “The Dullest Blog in the World” has created extremely niche blogs. It is free to re-use his cartoons for blogs, mainly because he wants readers to enjoy his work. He also hopes that there may be readers who may like his works so much that they may be willing to pay to re-publish a cartoon or take interest in one of his other pet projects like “The Cartoon Blog” or “CartoonChurch.com”.

Even business blog networks have included business-related cartoons in their business blogs. Know More Media, an online publisher of business information and news and one of the world’s recognized business blog networks carry cartoons on a number of their niche business blogs. The cartoons are witty and insightful while still pertaining to the business world. A dose of witty humor adds value to the blogs. Know More Media even aspires that more creative and original cartoonists will partner with them in the future, proof that cartoons will be daily staples in some blogs. Cartoons have the ability to communicate the truth through the use of humor.

“Writing and cartooning are very close cousins.” one cartoonist equipped. Writing a blog can help organize a blogger’s thoughts and help spark cartoon ideas. More and more cartoonists are publishing their works on blogs and really find an audience without having to pass through editors. Blogs with cartoons tend to draw attention to a blog thus driving traffic. With cartoons on blogs, the readers can react in a positive and often happy manner. A blog can keep readers laughing. In this day and age, a little humor and a more relaxed atmosphere might just be what everybody needs. Laughter is still the best medicine so have fun with your blog.