Comic strips and mathematics
Comic strips are a unique blend of visual art and narrative that present creators with distinct mathematical challenges. They require a careful balance of storytelling and geometric organization within their panels, which often follow an expected pattern that engages readers. Emerging in the early 20th century, comic strips have evolved from expansive illustrations to more concise formats, primarily focusing on humor derived from pattern recognition and deviations from established norms. Notably, characters and scenes are meticulously arranged to guide the reader's eye and maintain narrative flow.
Mathematics plays a dual role in comic strips: it informs their layout and can also serve as a source of humor. Many comic creators, such as Bill Amend of "Foxtrot" and Randall Munroe of "xkcd," incorporate math-related themes and jokes to reflect societal attitudes toward the subject. Furthermore, comic strips and graphic novels have found utility in educational settings, sparking discussions about mathematical concepts and fostering engagement with the subject. Works like "Logicomix" illustrate the intersection of mathematics and storytelling, exploring the lives of notable mathematicians and philosophers. Overall, the interplay of comics and mathematics offers a rich field for both entertainment and education.
Subject Terms
Comic strips and mathematics
Summary: Mathematics plays a role in comic strip formats and is sometimes even the subject of comics.
The comic strip is a combination of word and picture in a narrative structure, unique from forms of communication based solely on the one or the other. The standard comic strip format presents its creator with two unique mathematical puzzles: to tell a story that fits into the pattern unconsciously expected by the reader, and to organize the illustrations of a Sunday strip into a format of exacting geometric and narrative demands.
Origins
The term “comic strip” entered the English language in 1922, via a poem by Carl Sandburg, describing the single-strip, black-and-white cartoons published in daily newspapers. Scholars disagree on the origins of the comic strip. Daily strips first appeared circa 1903, as part of the racing tips section of the newspaper. This was some 20 years after the appearance of the first full- or half-page color comics in supplemental sections, a reaction to protests against publishing on Sundays.
Color cartoons were a continuation of the European tradition of sociopolitically inspired prints that date back to the widely circulated wood block broadsheets of fifteenth-century Germany. Some scholars go further, tracing ancestry as far back as La Tapisserie de La Reine Mathilde, narrative scrolls of China and Japan, Trajan’s Column, Bronze Age logographs, or even ancient petroglyphs and cave paintings. Regardless of the exact origins, the current format presents the cartoonist with two challenges of special interest to the mathematician.
Story and Art
The original supplements carried full- or half-page features with detailed drawings and developed stories. Older strips would not be legible if published at current smaller sizes. As a result, the expansive serial strip has been replaced almost entirely by the gag strip.
Theorists suggest that humor is based on pattern recognition. If the audience recognizes a pattern, it begins to anticipate what will come next. A deviation from the pattern, if done correctly, is perceived as humorous. In gag strips, between two-thirds and three-quarters of the space is spent establishing the pattern. The deviation happens next, sometimes followed by a character reaction to the deviation, sympathetically reinforcing the audience reaction, or providing additional deviation.
Not only have comic strips become smaller, all color comics must fit into an extremely limited template. Syndicates require a minimum of six panels, but some newspapers elect not to publish one or both of the first panels. Character poses and scene layouts in the two-dimensional plane are designed to lead the reader’s gaze from one point of interest to another, driving the story forward. Deciding on the orientation of visual images and their relationships can be difficult when the artist does not know where one panel will be in relation to the next.
Mathematics in Comic Strips
Mathematics is used not only to decide the layout and flow of comic strips but can be used within comic strips as an element of humor. Many comics reveal or satirize widely held societal attitudes and beliefs about mathematics. Bill Amend, creator of the widely circulated Foxtrot comic strip, has a degree in physics, and his strip frequently features mathematically based humor. The same is true of Randall Munroe’s Web comic xkcd, which is subtitled “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” Comic strips may be used in classrooms as motivators for serious discussions about mathematics concepts and analysis of peoples’ attitudes about mathematics. There are also entire comic books and graphic novels intended to teach mathematics. The work Logicomix dramatizes the life story of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, who spent his life trying to establish an indisputable logical foundation for mathematics. In the course of the novel, he encounters many mathematicians of note, including Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert, Kurt Gödel, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Bibliography
Doxiadis, Apostolos. Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2009.
Emmer, Michele. Mathematics and Culture IV. Berlin: Springer, 2006.
Ksir, Amy, and Russell Goodman. “FoxTrot Brings Mathematics to the Comics Page.” Math Horizons 13 (November 2005).
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993.