Once upon a time-way back in the twentieth century-people got their laughs from reading comics in the newspaper. Today, many of us get our chuckles by seeing (and sharing) humorous memes online.
But are these two cultural phenomena really that different? In a new article, comics scholar Michelle Ann Abate argues that memes are an important new type of digital comic.
"Memes use a lot of the same visual and verbal elements that go into a comic, and those elements function in a very similar way. So yes, memes should absolutely be considered a type of comic," said Abate, a professor of literature for children and young adults at The Ohio State University's College of Education and Human Ecology.
Abate wrote about memes as comics in the spring 2025 issue of INKS: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society.
Abate said she started thinking about the connection between the two art forms when she noticed that she was sharing lots of memes in group chats with friends where she was also posting single-panel comics.
"It occurred to me that they have that same interplay of visual and verbal elements," she said.
In both comics and memes, the text and the image would not make much sense without the other. The elements work together to produce the humor.
Of course, with comics, the artist normally produces both the drawing and the language. In memes, people use a base image - known as an "image macro" - and add their own commentary.
Using a pre-existing visual as the basis for a meme is "akin to sampling in music," Abate said.
"Someone takes that base content and repurposes it, reimagines it, and develops it into an original piece of art."
Some of those base images have been used many thousands of times and become a cultural phenomenon: for instance, the "Distracted boyfriend," "Batman Slapping Robin" or "American Chopper."
While memes are a relatively recent development, comics themselves have long used pre-existing images to provide others with the opportunity to add their own original language and create their own unique cartoon panel.
The Caption Contest from The New Yorker embodies a well-known current example of this phenomenon. Launched in 1999, the magazine publishes a single-panel drawing each week that lacks any speech balloons or dialogue boxes. Readers send in their ideas for the missing verbal element.
"The New Yorker's caption contest is often framed as a type of crowdsourcing, but it is also kind of memeing," Abate said. "The platform may be a bit more highbrow, but the readers are really helping produce a meme."
That said, memes and comics do possess some distinct differences.
Because memes are created, read, and shared online, their panels are generally arranged vertically, rather than horizontally. That difference can be key, Abate said.
She uses the example of the "American Chopper" meme that shows a series of five screenshots taken from an episode of the popular reality show by the same name. The meme sequence features the two main stars - Paul Teutel, Sr. and his son Paul Teutel, Jr. - in a heated argument.
Many creators have used this meme to relay a cultural debate in which the two stars take a different side of the argument.
The vertical format is perfect for reading on a smart phone or tablet where it is much easier to examine content by scrolling down rather than left to right, Abate said. But this spatial layout has another advantage in the "American Chopper" meme.
Rather than reading continually from left to right, the placement of panels in a long vertical strip forces people to stop for a fraction of a second as their eyes move down to the next panel.
"American Chopper" wants its readers to pause, just briefly, so they can consider the argument that has been made before they scroll down to the counterargument that appears below it.
"It is that momentary delay that shifts the exchange from two people simply yelling at each other to two people debating each other," she said.
"If the panels were arranged horizontally and the guys were side by side in each other's face, installments of 'American Chopper' would come across very differently."
That's just one illustration of how memes both mirror and modify comics, Abate said.
Scott McCloud, in his book "Reinventing Comics," talked about digital comics as having an "infinite canvas" because they were no longer restricted to a certain size or shape, as they would have in a printed format. Online, a single comics panel can be as big as a city block; readers can use their cursor, arrow keys, or trackpad to explore it. Obviously, these dimensions would not work for a physical book.
Memes embody this notion of "infinite canvas," but in a different way from what McCloud envisioned, Abate said.
"The limitless nature of meme-based comics is not the boundless size of their panels," she wrote. "Rather, it is the inexhaustible reusability of their visual template."
This infinite canvas of memes suggests they will be staying around, even as they evolve, Abate explained.
"Memes have become such an important part of our lexicon in the 21st century. They are part of how we communicate, part of our sense of humor, and a key way that we connect with each other."
