[b]Grawlix[/b] is meaningless typographical gibberish used by cartoonists as a stand-in for unprintable dialogue (usually profanity, but sometimes just meant to convey unintelligible incoherence on the part of the speaking character).  The term (originally a numerate singular; plural [i]grawlixes[/i]) was coined by American cartoonist Mort Walker, creator of [i]Beetle Bailey[/i], in a 1964 satire for the National Cartoonists Society entitled "Let's Get Down to Grawlixes".  Walker later expanded on the theme in a 1980 book, [i]The Lexicon of Comicana[/i], in which he coined "technical" terms for other common visual shorthands, such as [i]plewds[/i] ([[flying sweatdrops]]) and [i]emanata[/i] ([[^^^]]).
grawlix