A comic or a cartoon could express a meme, just like anything else. Not in this case, though.

Most people just see "meme" as "a funny picture with text on it", so a comic fits right in there. Technically speaking, most things posted as memes aren't memes, but people are too lazy to separate these things out. And really, why should they?

Imagine giving a remote fuck about this and getting all worked up enough to comment on it

Memes are stored in the balls

Nothing has changed. We have kept the tradition constant.