Cartoons are compressed, readable picture-images. Accessibility and Speed - Cartoons convey complex political ideas quickly through visual shorthand. Exaggeration, caricature, and symbolism made their messages instantly recognizable, even to illiterate audiences and visual readers. Some of their visual symbols could communicate across race and class lines in ways text couldn't. 

The exaggerated nature of caricature in cartooning provides some cover for criticism. A cartoon could mock figures in ways that might be risky if stated directly in text. The "it's just a joke" defense of satire has always offered a thin but commonly used shield. Caricature amplifies features and situations to provoke emotional responses - laughter, outrage, sympathy. There is an emotional impact. 

Caricatured cartoons were political and ideological. They used visual rhetoric to convey a perspective, which made them perfect for religious organizations and sponsors of religion. Cartoons are typically single-panel editorial illustrations with a message. They're standalone images, with minimal text (captions, labels, speech bubbles). Cartoons use a short-hand to make their point in condensed ways by packing a lot of information into view. These can be drawn caricatures that distill information, or they can be representationally realistic. The writing in these is limited, for the story and the meaning is concentrated in the art itself.

Comics are also known as sequential art or visual stories. Comics are discrete, usually with multiple panels telling a story or joke through progression and unfold over time. They might be long form or short form. They serve to convey information and entertain through storytelling progression using the graphic form. 

The key difference between comics and cartoons is that the former embed culture within narrative and character development, while cartoons are immediate and use exaggeration and caricature to deliver the message in a condensed way. Another difference has to do with format: cartoons are typically single-panels and comics are multi-panel and sequential. 

It is important to note that when looking at comic books, the exhibit, by and large, focuses less on large commercial publishers of comic books, than specialized, niche and independent titles. The artifacts move among religious-community publishing, Black-owned or Black-directed media, independent work, activist materials, and occasional large commercial publishers.