The Economist on the economics of cartooning

The Economist have been posting some older, evergreen (or “stock” content, for regular readers…) on Medium. The piece on cartooning is particularly worth reading:

Cartoons go way back before newspapers. They have their origins in the caricatures and illustrations of early modern Europe. In Renaissance Germany and Italy, woodcuts and mezzotint prints were used to add pictures to books. By the 18th century simple cartoons, or caricatures, circulated in London coffee shops, lampooning royalty, society and politicians. Popular engravers such as William Hogarth and James Gillray came up with tricks we now take for granted: speech bubbles to show dialogue and sequential panels to show time passing.

Older than journalism – and possibly reinventing itself more successfully. Fascinating read.