The visual bleep: how a 1901 comic strip invented a new language

Art · Published 18 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: How do you depict a character screaming a curse word without actually printing it? For over a century, comics have relied on a visual shorthand that bypasses the ears and speaks directly to the imagination. It is the graphical equivalent of a bleep censor, turning profanity into a shape.

The grawlix, also known as an obscenicon, is a typographical convention where unpronounceable characters replace profanity. While it is a staple of modern cartoons and comics, its origins date back to the early 20th century. The first known instance appeared on November 1, 1901, in Gene Carr's comic strip Lady Bountiful. In the story 'Lady Bountiful is Shocked,' a child's speech bubble contained the string '!*!-!-' accompanied by a spiral and a series of lines around a dot, a visual representation of 'shocking' language. The technique relies on using symbols found on typewriters or computer keyboards—such as ampersands (&), at signs (@), dollar signs ($), and asterisks (*)—to mimic the phonetic structure of the missing words. For example, a dollar sign might stand in for the letter 'S.' This visual shorthand allows creators to convey intense emotion and aggression while adhering to the censorship standards of the medium. It became a standard tool for artists, expanding rapidly through the early 1900s, with The Katzenjammer Kids becoming the second comic to adopt the practice in December 1902. The terminology surrounding the grawlix has a complex history. While American cartoonist Mort Walker popularized the term in 1964 in his article 'Let's Get Down to Grawlixes,' he has attributed the actual coinage to Charles D. Rice of This Week magazine. The word itself may have originated from 'growl,' reflecting the angry sound a person makes when shouting. Its cultural significance is evidenced by its recent linguistic milestones: it was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in June 2018, included in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary in November 2022, and officially entered the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2025.

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