Cartoon Art History Wikia



Welcome to the Cartoon Art History Wikia
This Wiki, currently under construction, is a research project by Joshthecartoonguy exploring the educational potential of comics and cartooning. At the moment, cartoonists who want to study and help people learn about art history through visual means may collaborate with Josh on this project by reaching out to him at joshthecartoonguy@gmail.com. This wiki is distinct from other online encyclopedias in that it encourages you to make art and comics with a basis in historical events, as opposed to articles which provide basic summaries.

Contribute to a visual guide of Art History
If you've ever doodled in your notes, you are qualified to contribute work as a cartooning historian! History is full of unique characters and stories for cartoonists to inspire cartoonists, and this wiki is a place for you to showcase your historical-themed cartoons and comics. You can contact Joshthecartoonguy@gmail.com to communicate with him about how to contribute to this educational art project. Also, you can read these submission guidelines which may answer most questions on what kind of art you can submit: 1. Flashcards

A flashcard is the most basic type of image you can submit. It should contain the following: A picture of a historical person, event, or concept. Relevant dates such as birth and death dates for a person. A word or phrase which describes the person, event, or concept. For example, for Leonardo da Vinci, you could write "high renaissance painter." You have freedom in how you draw the person, event, or concept so long as the drawing is somehow connected to the concept. Optionally, you can add a gag or quote if you have space. There is no pressure to write an original gag for the flashcard, but you can add anything which helps you remember something about the person, event, or concept you depict.

On this wiki, flashcards act as page headers. Think of them as the equivalent of a "stub" on wikipedia. If you see a page with nothing but a flash card, think of the individuals depicted as potential characters you can make comics about. Because they contain the most basic information about a person, you don't need to engage in any deep amount of reading to create a flashcard. We'll accept wikipedia and other websites as a source for their birth and death dates, and this is often general, widely-publicized information. You can create flashcards any size you want, but the template provided is a good way to fit 16 flash cards on a single page. You can submit a flashcard even if a page already includes a flashcard. The top image of each page will always show be a gallery of all flashcards submitted.

2. Rough Notes

You're encouraged to take notes as you read and prepare to make comics and cartoons for this wiki. Your rough notes should be based upon an existing book, lecture series, or historical document. As the name indicates, they can be rough, including loose doodles, thoughts that occur to you as you read, diagrams and illustrations. Whether you write neatly and organize your notes beautifully, or scrawl to fill the page, please use doodling in your rough notes as you work, even if it's the mot simple people or diagrams possible. We prefer your rough notes to be readable on the wiki without downloading, so upload each page as an individual image. When you submit your rough notes, search to see if there is already an existing page for the book, lecture, or document you've been taking notes on (most likely, there isn't), and create a new page if none exists with the title of the book, lecture, or document as the title of your new page. For example, if you take notes on a book about Caravaggio, you should create a page for the book itself, with proper attribution to the author and publisher included either in your notes or typed above the page, then include a link to the separate page dedicated solely to Caravaggio. It's highly advised that, as you read and take notes, you also create flash cards of the author and people discussed in the book.

3. Comic summaries and adaptations of texts

In contrast to the rough notes, these would be more finished comics, which adapt or summarize an existing book or historical text in the format of a comic strip or comic book. You have creative liberty in dimensions and drawing style, but it's required that you correctly cite the sources you base your work upon so people can find and read the original source material. Please note that these comics should somehow be helpful historical resources, meaning if you adapt a letter into comics, you don't just rewrite the language in your own words or make up a fictional story about a historical event. If you adapt a book into comics, you should strive to be accurate in representing what the author wrote, not write what you'd like the book to say.

4. Creative cartoonist projects

This category is the most open to interpretation. If you are working on a historical-fiction comic, responding to a historical artwork in a personal creative fashion, or creating humorous comics about historical events and persons, this could be included under "creative projects." Also, if you are aware of cartoonists outside this wiki who have done work relating to art history, this would be a good place to link to their work (Don't post their work here without their permission). For example, on the page for "Michelangelo" you might link to cartoons which reference David under header "Creative Cartoonist Projects". This section should collect cartoons and comics which reference historical events and people, but aren't necessarily meant to be history-learning resources.

Please note that this is a learning process for yourself as much as anyone. This means that you don't have to worry about recreating something similar to what's already on this wiki. If making a flashcard would help you learn the name of a group of artists, you should make those flashcards and submit them, even if a flashcard has already been made for a particular artist. If we get duplicates, we will make galleries of different flashcards, notes, or comic adaptations of the same subject. You might interpret an artist or idea differently that another, and different styles are perfect for this wiki (for example, one cartoon might be humorous and memorable while another might be more serious and detailed, but both could be useful to learning about history in their own way).

If the concept of making historical comics interests you, but you have an interest in something besides art history (e.g. the history of music), please contact joshthecartoonguy@gmail.com and we can discuss whether your idea overlaps with the mission of the Cartoon Art History Wiki.

For now, please enjoy the completed comics and flashcards as they are created.

Yours sincerely,

Josh the Cartoon Guy

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