Cartooning has always been a great love of mine, and over the years I’ve found great pleasure in the different styles that are so readily available. As a cartoonist I constantly look for inspiration and ideas by indulging myself in the four main styles of cartooning: News paper comics, American comic books, Manga, and Web comics.

But out of all the different forms of cartooning which one is the best? I love them all but American comic books are widely considered to be the best whereas news paper comics are usually seen as the worst medium.

Newspaper comics have been around for centuries and as such an old medium they are starting to become more dated and obsolete. In the world’s move towards modernization, newspaper comics are slowly being replaced by more readily available web comics.

But as it stands Newspaper comics are just that– comics that appear in newspapers. This brings us to the first major flaw: because they appear in newspapers, there is a limit of what they can or can’t do.

Newspaper comics are notorious for lacking in content or just being plain unfunny, but what people need to understand is that syndicated cartoonists have very little to no freedom when it comes to what they can get away with.

Newspaper comics can’t say words like “damn”, “hell”, or “crap.” Sometimes cartoonist will say something like “oh %@#$” in their work and this itself will draw complaints from both syndications and readers because it’s alluding to the fact that a character is swearing. Politics, drugs, sex, and religion are also on the list of things that are considered taboo when it comes to Newspaper comics.

Out of all the forms of cartooning Newspaper comics have the least amount of freedom and, in contrast, Web comics defiantly have the most.

The amount of wiggle room for American comics and mangas varies from publisher to publisher but, for the most part, those mediums still have way more freedom.

While most forms of cartooning have a set story the audience can follow, newspaper comics are simple as pick-up and read. This is a lesser point, though, because it all depends of the preference of the reader—if quick jokes are more what you are looking for, then you wont mind these comics.

American Comics, though, have many reasons behind their popularity. They are very story-oriented and tend to continue and get more detailed through the passage of time—these comics have a lot of longevity.

Of course when it comes to retail American comics do have one major flaw: it’s almost impossible to have a complete collection of any given popular series. American comics have been around for a long time and typically don’t have definitive endings so it makes starting from the beginning to appreciate its value very difficult. Not to mention first issues are rare and expensive.

What does make American Comics great is that these comics attract a wide range of different people to work on their production. Some Comic books have a whole team working on them at once. Cover art, concept art, Character design, story, background; all these different aspects of a comic make it so Comic books become an ideal venue for getting your name noticed.

Newspaper comics, Manga, and Web comics take the opposite approach as they’re on average all done by one person. And since American Comics tend live on throughout generations there will always be need for talent from all walks of life.