Friday, August 19, 2005

Notes: A novel advance...

This weeks cartoon is pretty good, i think... not one of our best ever either though.
This week I did draw the lot 'out my own imagination' as John Spillane might say... as opposed to cogging any of it like I did last week...

After I was finished I sat back and looked at it, and for a second I thought "Why is it two guys?". Of course Milton is a guys name as far as I know, so that's why he's a guy. But the publisher didn't have to be a guy...

Thing is though, when I saw the word 'publisher' I thought of a guy. And that's what I drew. I wonder what proportion of publishers are male/female...?

It's a stereotype I guess. And cartoons rely on stereotypes to a certain degree. If it was a woman in the picture, would you get the cartoon so quickly?

Or would you have to stop and work out who was who and what was going on?

I have a sneaking suspicion that if it was a woman it wouldn't work so well. Not because it's funnier because it's two men, but because we wouldn't process the joke as quickly. Or am I just highlighing my sexist programming...?

Perhaps everybody else would get the joke just as quickly with either sex. If the woman was wearking a suit, as the publisher is in the cartoon, maybe that would be enough to identify her as the publisher - as long as Milton remained in a polo neck.

Ah the things these cartoons make me ponder...

Seriously though - comments on this welcomed!