Since I was a boy, the role and prominence of comics in the world has changed. First of all, publishing and the print medium has transferred over largely to the world of the internet and the explosion of something called "social media". The simple line cartoon seemed to be lost for a time, while newspapers downsized, or vanished altogether.
     However, there seems to be a brand new phenomenon bringing this style, perfected by such bygone stellar Canadian talents as Jimmy Frise, Doug Wright, Jim Simpkins and Walter Ball, back into the forefront of social consciousness. It may not even yet have a name, but let's call it the 'stop-motion, dry-erase whiteboard revolution'.
     A British-based production company named RSAnimate seems to be the birthplace of the online movement a couple of years ago, having an illustrator/illustrators sketch to a soundtrack of a instructional, or inspirational speaker. Since then, anyone who can draw, or reproduce a finished drawing and use video effects to fool the viewer that they can draw, has been trying to reproduce the technique, with varying degrees of success. Online video has developed the same importance as comic strips did in newspapers from the 1920s to 1980s.
     It will be interesting to see where this trend goes, as the ideal of ornate cartoon illustration was essentially starved to death in an attempt by the newspaper publishing industry to save money. Cartoonists like Garry Trudeau pushed back for years to get newspapers to concede more space to comics, before the internet came along and all but decimated the traditional newspaper. Today, multimedia reflects the ever-changing, tumultuous landscape of the electronic world about it.
     Where it all will settle, if it ever does, isn't clear at this time. All that is clear that the only constant is change. One day if an appreciation for genuine drawing talent continues, we may be lucky enough to see the spawning of the next William Randolph Hearst and/or Winsor McKay. As for me, I've been around too long and have seen too much, to hold my breath over it all.
     As short-term consolation, its a delight to see the return of beautiful cartoon drawing and a potential return of the expansive creative mind to the mainstream.