Concepts in “comics:” Universality of cartoon imagery

For my first official blog post, I’d like to discuss a concept that Scott McCloud brings up in chapter two of his book “Understanding Comics.”
Universality in cartoon imagery.
The fact that cartoons and comics are used in many situations (advertising, step-by-step airplane evacuation brochures, maps at the zoo, etc.) show us that the simplification of human emotion and reaction is understood and “read” in a wide range of age, social and language groups. But it’s more than that.
As McCloud states, “When you look at a photo or realistic drawing of a face – you see the face of another. But when you enter the world of the cartoon – you see yourself.” (Page 36)
In other words, there are lots of “blank spaces” for you to fill in your own familiarities.
In my opinion, it is this concept that explains why that annoying guy that sits behind you in Literature Appreciation who spouts off politically incorrect dialogue is a jerk, but Cartman spouting off politically incorrect dialogue in South Park is a genius.
But here is the example that struck home with me.( It’s a rather depressing example, and I’m sorry to bring the mood down – but we’re a rather melancholy group so far, it seems, and so far there hasn’t been much hand-holding or guitar strumming in “The Watchmen” but I digress.)
I had a lot of surgeries when I was younger. Spine surgery, kidney surgery, tendon surgery. All that surgery equals a bit of pain and the medical practice world of gauging kid’s pain is to show them a chart like this:

Now… I don’t know about you, but those faces traumatized me for life. I held great aversion to any mention or sight of this pain scale well into my adult life. (The therapy helps, now I just see pretty butterflies in the Rorschach splotches… really.) The catch is: I wasn’t shown that scale when I was in a great amount of pain. I wasn’t in much pain at all the first time, but I remember having extreme empathy/sympathy for those sad faces. In fact, I saw everyone in the whole world, me, my parents, my neighbors, my grandparents, my peers and my dog, all bawling in the number 5 face.
The medical world offered an improvement to the original, that perhaps is better:

Or perhaps not. Still, I think the more realistic interpretation wouldn’t have made me so sad: It would have been “that guy’s in pain.” Not “me and all the good lord’s creatures in this world are in pain.” Perhaps I’m also biased and trying to make a point, but I’m throwing it out there.
Essentially, it’s the ability the human psyche has to assign identities and emotions into things that do not exist – the reader puts their own emotions and five senses into the interpretation of the drawing more so than in novels, movies, TV shows or other artistic medias.
We are the faces. We are super heroes. We feel pain, we seek adventure. We relate and we engage.
‘Til next time.
-PVB