As you may know, I teach kids drawing and cartooning a lot. And as I am teaching, I also get to have one big flashback to the social dynamics of, say, fourth-grade girls. Or second-grade boys. The stuff that gets said across the table as the pens are getting thrown back and forth and kids are becoming best friends and then not friends and then friends again is truly head-spinning. But it's simply amazing to me how much of it is exactly like what I experienced at their age. There's the ringleader who is kind of mean to the semi-outcast kid, who just keeps coming back for more abuse because she just wants friends and doesn't know how else to get them. There's the friend-of-the-ringleader, who is more compassionate and is nice to the semi-outcast when the ringleader isn't looking. There's the kid who copies his friend's drawings, because he likes them, not because he's stealing ideas, but this is Not Okay and the subject of much discussion and yelling. There are scribbled notes passed, tears shed, unflattering drawings made. And it occurs to me that each of these kids has an identity that is totally a function of the other kids. They are like a little ecosystem, a food chain maybe. They are figuring out who is predators and who is prey. For the moment. Then they can go back to drawing various inappropriate body parts on their pictures so I can look sheepish when their parents pick them up.
Social Relativity Explained
As you may know, I teach kids drawing and cartooning a lot. And as I am teaching, I also get to have one big flashback to the social dynamics of, say, fourth-grade girls. Or second-grade boys. The stuff that gets said across the table as the pens are getting thrown back and forth and kids are becoming best friends and then not friends and then friends again is truly head-spinning. But it's simply amazing to me how much of it is exactly like what I experienced at their age. There's the ringleader who is kind of mean to the semi-outcast kid, who just keeps coming back for more abuse because she just wants friends and doesn't know how else to get them. There's the friend-of-the-ringleader, who is more compassionate and is nice to the semi-outcast when the ringleader isn't looking. There's the kid who copies his friend's drawings, because he likes them, not because he's stealing ideas, but this is Not Okay and the subject of much discussion and yelling. There are scribbled notes passed, tears shed, unflattering drawings made. And it occurs to me that each of these kids has an identity that is totally a function of the other kids. They are like a little ecosystem, a food chain maybe. They are figuring out who is predators and who is prey. For the moment. Then they can go back to drawing various inappropriate body parts on their pictures so I can look sheepish when their parents pick them up.
An Image that Keeps Coming Back
I've had a number of images in my life that I've drawn, over and over. I used to draw a clown sitting on a chair on a stage, facing away from its audience. Lately, this image of a figure on a long desert road keeps coming up, again and again. These repeated images often turn out to have interesting meanings later on -- so I look forward to interpreting this one in a few years.
Unpublished Goofiness
This cartoon never got published - for obvious reasons, like the fact that I am SO not a political cartoonist. Big big difference between political and social satire. My thoughts do often come out in drawing form though, so this is what was on my mind at the time. I drew this before the Iraq War, in fact I think I drew this pre-September 11th. I've inked almost 1,800 cartoons to date, and this is number 272 - to give an idea how old it is (I started publishing back in 1993). So it's interesting to go back and see just how much of this terrorist type stuff was floating around in the psyche even years ago. The buildup to where we're at now has deeeep roots. Sheesh. Okay, I will go back to being non-political now. Just kind of fun to dig around now and then and see what comes up.
Psychic Cartoonist Network
Okay I did this one quite some time ago - I had no idea it would become quite so topical. I was mostly making fun of the "Remove Card Quickly" thing that pops up on gas station pumps. But I bet there are a lot of people out there who wish they could get that card out juuust a little faster - before the machine can start ringing up 60 bucks worth of gas. Sometimes cartoons change meaning over time like that. It's a fun process to watch. Filling the car, not so much.
Here's to Roadtripping.
Since I'm about to go driving through Northern Arizona, I thought I'd post this thought about the need for food along the road less traveled.Yes, I have eaten Nilla Wafers that looked like they'd been on the shelf for a decade at an old shop in the redwoods, I've even bought McNuggets in Paris. So, here's to all the weird food out there, and the fabulous little sandwich places in the middle of nowhere that save us from our hungry selves. I salute you.
BTALD: Barging Around
Have you ever been in a situation, say, where a door was locked or people weren't sure which line to stand in or a store wasn't open yet, and people just stood there until one person took it upon themselves to knock on the door, or ask which line is right (is this the line for people who already have tickets?), or when the store opens? And then, everyone just gets up and goes in as if they were just waiting for that one icebreaker person to do something?Those invisible barriers are really interesting. Becoming older and having kids seems to make you care about them a lot less. I'm much more likely to barge around and ask questions and bang on doors and stuff now than I used to be.
Or, maybe that anti-barging part of my brain just wore out at some point.
Anyway, it would be interesting to do a study where you go out and look for things that rely on unwritten rules and rule-following behavior to work. Like, velvet ropes. Or, lines on the floor made out of tape. And, any deli counter where they holler, "Who was next??"
The one place where none of this applies is: Driving. There, if it isn't printed on a sign or painted on the ground, it's fair game. Something about having a large metal object to shove around in I think.
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