Editing Comic strip (section)

==Social and political influence==

The comics have long held a distorted mirror to contemporary society, and almost from the beginning have been used for political or social commentary. This ranged from the conservative slant of Harold Gray's ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'' to the unabashed [[Liberalism in the United States|liberalism]] of Garry Trudeau's ''[[Doonesbury]]''. Al Capp's ''[[Li'l Abner]]'' espoused liberal opinions for most of its run, but by the late 1960s, it became a mouthpiece for Capp's repudiation of the counterculture.

''Pogo'' used animals to particularly devastating effect, caricaturing many prominent politicians of the day as animal denizens of Pogo's Okeefenokee Swamp. In a fearless move, Pogo's creator Walt Kelly took on [[Joseph McCarthy]] in the 1950s, caricaturing him as a bobcat named Simple J. Malarkey, a megalomaniac who was bent on taking over the characters' birdwatching club and rooting out all undesirables. Kelly also defended the medium against possible government regulation in the [[McCarthyism|McCarthy era]]. At a time when comic books were coming under fire for supposed sexual, violent, and subversive content, Kelly feared the same would happen to comic strips. Going before the Congressional subcommittee, he proceeded to charm the members with his drawings and the force of his personality. The comic strip was safe for satire.

During the early 20th century, comic strips were widely associated with publisher [[William Randolph Hearst]], whose papers had the largest circulation of strips in the United States. Hearst was notorious for his practice of [[yellow journalism]], and he was frowned on by readers of ''[[The New York Times]]'' and other newspapers which featured few or no comic strips. Hearst's critics often assumed that all the strips in his papers were fronts for his own political and social views. Hearst did occasionally work with or pitch ideas to cartoonists, most notably his continued support of [[George Herriman]]'s ''[[Krazy Kat]]''. An inspiration for [[Bill Watterson]] and other cartoonists, ''Krazy Kat'' gained a considerable following among intellectuals during the 1920s and 1930s.

Some comic strips, such as ''Doonesbury'' and ''[[Mallard Fillmore]]'', may be printed on the [[editorial page|editorial]] or [[op-ed page]] rather than the comics page because of their regular political commentary. For example, the August 12, 1974 ''[[Doonesbury]]'' strip was awarded a [[1975 Pulitzer Prize]] for its depiction of the [[Watergate scandal]]. ''[[Dilbert]]'' is sometimes found in the business section of a newspaper instead of the comics page because of the strip's commentary about [[office politics]], and ''[[Tank McNamara]]'' often appears on the sports page because of its subject matter. [[Lynn Johnston]]'s ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'' created an uproar when Lawrence, one of the strip's supporting characters, came out of the closet.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cartoonician.com/the-lynn-johnston-interview/ |title="The Lynn Johnston Interview," ''Hogan's Alley'' #1, 1994 |access-date=2013-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619191408/http://cartoonician.com/the-lynn-johnston-interview/ |archive-date=2013-06-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref>