We are quite proud of the fact that we offer personalized images inside of our custom kids books.  It is extremely important to us that the children receiving our books see THEMSELVES inside, not just their name.

But how did our artists create characters that could be customized to become every child in America (and some very far away countries, too)?  A fantastic book called “Making Comics” by Scott McCloud illuminates how, as a default, a reader envisions a character as him or herself.  I’ll try to explain with my own horrible drawings.

Imagine a stick figure.  We recognize it as an icon signifying a human.  Any human. It could be you!

 <— You.

You identify with the stickman.  Feel his pain.  But when we give him a monocle, top hat, and cane, it is no longer you (unless you are Mr. Peanut).

 <— Some jerk.

So it is through each new detail that you begin to differentiate a character on a page as “not you”.

“Okay,” you say, “so you were too lazy to create all the different face shapes, noses, and brows to more accurately match each character to an individual child, so you went generic.”

Not quite.  Have you ever seen this piece of art?

If not, I’ll relate how nearly everyone learns about it.  The French script underneath the pipe says, “This is not a pipe.” 

“Silly French Artist,” you say with a bit of disdain for all people who were berets, “of course it is.  Look at it, it looks just like a pipe.”  

“But can you smoke it?” asks some snooty art person who’s already in on the joke, to which you sheepishly hang your head, roll your eyes and admit, “Fine.  It’s not a pipe.  It’s a PAINTING of a pipe.”  And then you wait anxiously for the moment you can look smart by explaining it to someone else.

Back to our “laziness”. We realize that anything we put on a page can only be a visual REPRESENTATION of any particular child.  Photorealistic detail only underlines this fact, which is why it’s a lot easier to believe that this…

 <— Jeff

is ME, and this…

<— Some jerk.

is just plain creepy.

I suggest everyone who has ANY interest at all in comics (funny papers count) to go out and buy or check out from the library “Making Comics” by Scott McCloud.  It’ll change the way you see not just comics, but art itself!   Check out his amazing lecture on Ted.com.

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