The Cartoon World of Real People

According to McCloud, the more "cartoony a face is... the more people it can describe (McCloud 31)." In our final page, we will describe how non-super characters are drawn in cartoons. When we see characters within the daily strips, we often see a caricature of daily life. Think of strips like Baby Blues, Foxtrot, or Zits. The characters are completely caricaturized depictions of the family life. Though it is a form of gazing and scopophilia, we gain no sexual pleasure. Rather, we gain a sense of calm in these fantasy lives. The characters here are happy, and despite some grievances, they depict normal families. In a sense, we long for these lives more, than the comic book ones, as the comic book worlds are not as attainable as these are.

But then we look to the world like The Walking Dead. Here we have an interesting dynamic between the real and not real. The humans in the story are very real, trying to survive in this world, but the world is filled with the living dead, with no explanation for how they came back from the dead. What do we feel when we view these characters? For us, it is a mixture of hope and dread. We hope the characters survive, as time goes on we learn to empathize with them, but we know that time is running out for some. When we view these comics, the characters are more detailed, and less cartoony, but the wide range of characters lends us the ability to connect with at least one. With that character, we read the comics, making our own choices in regards to what should be done to survive, and like some characters, becoming bitter and hateful to some characters written in the comics. This kind of scopophilia is interesting, in terms of its range of emotions. We hate to see what comes next, but we can't look away. For some, these characters are as real as you or me. Click the forward arrow to continue to the Bibliography, the back arrow to head backwards, or the home icon to go home.