Childish Characterizations
The above comic is all about irrational fears and the reality of an architect’s mad desire to make a dorm into a prison. There is more to say about this architect’s work, but I’d prefer to save that for another comic. Instead, let’s talk about characters.
Television cartoons are intended for children. No matter how much I want to love the new X-Men cartoon as I did that of the 90s, I know it’s not written with me in mind. By the way, “Wolverine and the X-men”? I know he’s a popular character but that does not make a super hero team interesting. That’s off topic though. The point is that contrary to this trend, comic strips are generally written for adults. There are two methods a cartoonist can use to write a comic that is interesting to adults while still maintaining the cartoon’s juvenile feel.
One way of doing this is writing child characters and giving them adult attributes or personalities. Bill Watterson gave Calvin a far greater vocabulary and grasp of social principles than any 6 year old could possibly have. Calvin’s adventures are partly imagination and partly ingenuity and a willingness to circumvent authority beyond his years. Charles Shultz did essentially the same thing with the Peanuts gang, except he entirely removed any adult of authority from view. In doing so he created a sort of civilized Lord of the Flies. One in which the children don’t kill each other. Unless Charlie Brown cracked his head open after missing that football. Then it would be exactly like Lord of the Flies. Either way, it is the adult inside a child dynamic which allows the reader to experience a throwback to childhood and simpler times without becoming bored or irritated by a lack of intelligent themes.
Other comics employ reversal of this technique. They give adult characters childlike attributes. Both PvP and Penny Arcade have characters whose love of games and comic books, and lack of visible employment instills the reader with a sense of nostalgia. Actually the PvP characters all have jobs, but they are rarely ever seen doing work. Cole, when playing the ineffectual authority figure, is a bad example. Brent and Francis, however, are particularly good at slacking off and shirking the aforementioned authority. As in Calvin and Hobbes, they are constantly engaging in the kind of half baked schemes we all planned as children, but lacked the resources to implement. They are able to play out these schemes due to the resources assumed to be afforded to adults. The adult identities of the characters also allows the reader to relate to them better. As a note, while many adults, including myself, play video games and love comic books, the main reason is escapism. This hardly qualifies it as adult behavior.
I would also argue that violence, while considered by ratings boards to be a mature theme, is in fact childish in most cases. In comics, violence is frequently inflicted without reason or in a petty way. As such, Calvin hitting Suzy in the back of the head with a slush ball, Tycho killing Gabe over the Pac Man watch, and Brent getting mauled by a Panda are comparable events.
Regardless of which path is chosen, there is a balance of intelligence and maturity with youthful energy and freedom from responsibility. It offers a freedom to explore both mature and innocent themes. It should be readily apparent that Enrolled follows the path of PvP and PA and will explore as far as necessary.
So far we have architecture, suicide, and ninja ambush. I think it’s a good start
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