The Language of Lines
Showing at the Charles M. Schulz Museum—
February 2 through August 11, 2008

Note: If you would like any of the images in this release at a higher resolution to print in a publication, contact Gina Huntsinger at gina@schulzmuseum.org.

The Language of Lines: How Cartoonists Communicate
February 2 through August 11, 2008
Downstairs Changing Gallery

January 24, 2008—Santa Rosa, CA. 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 newest exhibition, The Language of Lines: How Cartoonists Communicate, examines 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 explores 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 has also mounted a companion exhibition, Beyond Words which examines 75 original Peanuts strips in which Charles Schulz dispensed with dialogue and used only “pictures” to tell the story. Beyond Words opened January 16 and runs through May 12, 2008.

Peanuts ~ February 12, 1956