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The original was posted on /r/comicstriphistory by /u/thatsecondguywhoraps on 2025-02-03 22:43:58+00:00.

Hello everybody, I’ve been getting into newspaper comics recently, and I’ve been thinking about how motion is portrayed in them.

In a lot of the earlier comics I’ve read, I don’t think motion is portrayed very well. For example, in the “Jimmy” comic that is in the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics (p.31), in the third panel, it looks like the dog is just placed on top of the man’s foot, instead of the man actually kicking the dog.

I’ve been reading a Popeye volume too that has 1930 Sunday Strips (like the one where he tried to fight in a boxing ring and keeps losing because he breaks the rules). When Popeye punches somebody, it often looks like the hand and face just meet instead of there being motion. The comics have motion lines, but when I read it, my attention is drawn to the characters before the motion lines so it doesn’t look like anything is moving.

I started getting into comic strips by reading all of Calvin & Hobbes. I think motion is portrayed pretty well in Calvin & Hobbes. I guess I started thinking about it because I saw the contrast between that and the other comics.

Just wanted to talk about it and get other people’s thoughts