SWEAT!

In Chapter Five of Understanding Comics, McCloud discusses the abstract symbols that have developed universally in comics. On 128 he discusses how the invisible become visible (i.e. stink lines). Two pages later, however, he illustrates my favorite cartooning symbol, the flying droplets of sweat.

This can be shown with an old cartoon I did for the Daily Illini (to the left)

Something like this is a standard way to present emotion in comics and cartoons but only because it has been used so often.

I spent the majority of my youth (including now) watching cartoons, drawing, and reading funny papers. To me it is as clear as day what is going on. But when this cartoon ran I had a couple friends ask me to explain something. Was there supposed to be a halo around the guy?' one asked. Another thought something was on the wall. When I said it was sweat, I only recieved blank stares.

That's the first time I had been confronted with totally cartoon-illiterate people. Needless to say I don't speak to them anymore. That's actually not true, I just have lost respect for them and ,accordingly, act very condescending when I'm around them.

Something so clear to me was completely foreign to my friends. I felt like them when I saw the snot? blood? shooting out of a guy's nose on page 131. I'd have no idea that represented 'lust.' Now I watched Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing after school back in late middle school/ early high school and I had those Imported Pokemon comics, but I had never seen that.

It goes to show how arbitrary these symbols are and how subjectivity their meanings can be. Everyone interprets things differently. For instance, I could write:

"Why don't you come over later."

The later is emphasized. Does this mean 'later' is said in a certain way? It could be said seductively, as if to imply a winking emoticon. On the flip side though, it could mean later, as in not now, I'm busy, I'm brushing you off. The italics could mean disdain and disinterest. NOT NOW, NOT SOON, MAYBE LATER. This is way AIM is a tough way to carry on a conversation.

But in conclusion, I wish sweat really did fly off your head when you were nervous and that exclamation points really did pop out your skull when you were shocked....