In modern print media, a cartoon is a piece of art, usually humorous in intent. This usage dates from 1843, when Punch magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages,[5] particularly sketches by John Leech. The first of these parodied the preparatory cartoons for grand historical frescoes in the then-new Palace of Westminster. The original title for these drawings was Mr Punch's face is the letter Q and the new title "cartoon" was intended to be ironic, a reference to the self-aggrandizing posturing of Westminster politicians.
Modern single-panel gag cartoons, found in magazines, generally consist of a single drawing with a typeset caption positioned beneath, or—much less often—a speech balloon.[6] Newspaper syndicates have also distributed single-panel gag cartoons by Mel Calman, Bill Holman, Gary Larson, George Lichty, Fred Neher and others. Many consider New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno the father of the modern gag cartoon (as did Arno himself). The roster of magazine gag cartoonists includes names like Charles Addams, Charles Barsotti and Chon Day.
Bill Hoest, Jerry Marcus and Virgil Partch began as magazine gag cartoonists and moved to syndicated comic strips. Richard Thompson is noteworthy in the area of newspaper cartoon illustration; he illustrated numerous feature articles in The Washington Post before creating his Cul de Sac comic strip. The sports section of newspapers usually featured cartoons, sometimes including syndicated features such as Chester "Chet" Brown's All in Sport.
