[Sun Kitten]

How cool is this? They found 5000-6000 year old cartoons in an island in northern Russia, and the article describes one depicting a bear hunt. It says "this is the oldest example of a cartoon petroglyph we know of, at least in Northern Europe..."

Carved in stone, now that's a hard way to make a comic

[Wayne]

Indeed. Imagine the trouble they'd have getting their stock to events.

[Darth Mongoose]

Oh wow, that's awesome! It's so interesting how humans instinctively use line art to draw even though an outline is not a thing that exists in real life. It's like lines and the comprehension of their meaning, and the ability to understand abstraction are kind of hard-wired into the human brain somehow. It's so interesting that stick figures are pretty much a universal language among humans.

So I guess this means comics as a form are at least 6000 years old? It's good to be keeping alive such an ancient tradition!

[felneymike]

Considering it's possible to create comic strips without any writing they were a very handy way of telling stories before the invention of writing XD. The pictures accompanying heiroglyphics in ancient Egypt, and the origins of Chinese writing, are other examples. Comics are up there with oral storytelling in the "oldest art form" stakes

[bex]

Seriously awesome, just another reason as to why comics should be appreciated a bit more in our current culture <3 And I agree with Darth, its so cool that we've always used this similar stylisation when making images