The Language of Lines: How Cartoonists Communicate

February 2 through August 11, 2008
Dialogue in a cartoon strip gets much of the credit for conveying meaning, but a great deal of what readers interpret from cartoon art is non-verbal. The Charles M. Schulz Museum’s The Language of Lines: How Cartoonists Communicate, examined the visual shorthand of comic art, including speed lines, sweat drops, footprints, dotted eyesight lines, sound effects, and thought balloons—specialized graphic devices that are used to represent human emotions and convey abstract ideas quickly.

This exhibition of 69 comic strips explored the use of visual shorthand in comic strips past and present, including Peanuts, Doonesbury, Calvin and Hobbes, Beetle Bailey, Zits, Hi & Lois, Mutts, Bizarro, Stone Soup, Pearls Before Swine, and more.

Beetle Bailey © 1970 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

The Museum's companion exhibition, Beyond Words, examined 75 original Peanuts strips in which Charles Schulz dispensed with dialogue and used only “pictures” to tell the story. Beyond Words opened January 16 through May 12, 2008.

Peanuts ~ February 12, 1956

Co-curated by Brian Walker, co-curator of the critically-acclaimed exhibition, Masters of American Comics.

>> Return to Past Exhibitions