WHERE DO CARTOON CHARACTERS COME FROM?

Where do cartoon characters come from? They’re in our heads. We’ve been storing up images since we were in diapers — the weird character who lived down the street, the know-it-all kid in high school, the suck-up co-worker, and all the weird dates you ever had. They’re all cartoons just waiting for a pencil and a joke.

Is that cat your 9th grade English teacher?

Yep. She’s a cartoon character. She was old — too old for the cute bows in her too-black mop of hair — maybe 50. Her cartoon almost drew itself, sitting on her desk with her legs crossed and wearing her big, cat glasses. 

 Is your feisty aunt a cartoon character?

My Aunt Minkie was a character all right — fiery, outspoken, and fazed by nothing. She ruled the roost when she was alive and she dominates any cartoon she’s in now.

Drop Aunt Minkie into any scene and you have a cartoon.

Let her react to the inventions she could never have even dreamed of — computers, iPhones, talking cars.

And what if you dropped her into modern society where people walk down the street talking out loud to what looks like nobody? And how does she react to nude beaches?

 New Cartoon characters spring up.

New cartoon characters came to life when people met up with Aunt Minkie — especially when she was driving her big old Hudson — which she did into her nineties. She gave me the terrified driver and the young cop who stopped her for speeding and reckless driving.

Sometimes 1 cartoon character isn’t enough.

We had a crabby neighbor, Mrs. Grey. She was stick thin, had tight permed gray hair, and wore a permanent frown. She complained about everybody, but her favorite targets were kids. “I’m telling your mother,” was her mantra. We ran too fast, talked too loud, caused too much commotion. Our worst sin was drawing chalk hopscotch games on the sidewalk.

Mrs. Grey inspired so many characters. One day she’s a crotchety woman. The next day she’s a frog. Then a cat.

 

   

High school — a treasure trove of cartoon characters —

Who from your high school stands out in your memory? The kid who wore a ducktail, smoked cigarettes, and the teachers called a delinquent? Or the super-smart snotty girl who rolled her eyes whenever you didn’t get the right answer? Or the girl who stole your boyfriend? They’re all characters in your hands now. Get even and have fun.

My 7th grade PE teacher — the cartoon character

Everybody had at least one schoolteacher who made life miserable. And for the less agile of us, that was likely to be a physical education teacher. Was it always ok for the PE teacher to humiliate kids for their imperfections — to motivate them, of course.

I was twelve, non-athletic and at best awkward. It didn’t take long for the cartoon of Miss Rupp as a big fat pig with sweats and whistle to form in my head — although it looked more like the wolf.

Cartoon characters get even.

Miss Rupp insisted that we learn to do a backward roll. I was convinced that my body wasn’t built to do gymnastics, and I knew the backward roll would break my back and I’d be crippled forever. No matter how Miss Rupp chided me, mocked me, and scoffed at me, I wasn’t breaking my back for her. But her cartoon character does do a backward role — right in the mud.

More cartoon character people we could do without —

The ones who tell you how you can be better.

The snarky guy, “You’d only have to lose fifteen or twenty pounds and you’d be almost pretty.  Your aunt who could crash a sunny day with one of her insulting compliments.Or the “friend” who’s almost as good as your aunt at ruining your day. You just got a new breezy hairstyle, and she says, “Don’t worry. Almost everybody has beach hair in the summer. It’ll probably look better when it’s cooler.

So thats where cartoon characters come from — the images we’ve been collecting since we were in diapers. They’re all cartoons just waiting for a pencil and a joke.

Ruthi

August 2024

 

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