Page - 24 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

24 | Christian Wessely www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 17–44 the cartoon (see fig. 5) is a further subcategory, usually employed for an indi- vidual drawing on the border between comic and caricature that is self-stand- ing and has only a few of the typical characteristics of the comic (see below).22 the cartoon will often make reference to contemporary political and/or social context. fOrMAL feAtUres fundamentally, a comic is a single drawing or series of drawings that tells a sto- ry (narrative element), with the depiction reduced to its essential components (abstracting element); the explanatory, verbal text is of secondary importance (priority of the image); the narrative is not bound to time (multitemporality); and the whole provides readers with new interpretative meanings (polypercep- tion). NArrAtiVe eLeMeNt A comic is a drawing that narrates a story that may be known or completely new. Unlike the classic painting, a comic has a narrative that is not limited to 22 in the Anglo-American context, “cartoon” (short: “toon”) is also used to designate the animated short film. Fig. 5: Ralph Ruthe, Cartoon #3031, in: http://ruthe.de/cartoon/3031/ datum/asc/ [accessed 5 Dec. 2016].