Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Today’s Zippy takes us into the world of soap-opera comics, specifically those by Nick Dallis (with various collaborators):

(#1) Realistic cartoon characters from three Dallis strips: Rex Morgan, M.D.; Judge Parker; and Apartment 3-G (among other well-known soap opera strips: Mary Worth, Brenda Starr)

The characters in realistic cartoons are stylized sketches from life, while those in cartoony worlds are grossly exaggerated, some not even humanoid in form. Zippy himself is human (a Pinhead rather than a Roundhead) but cartoony — though as other Zippy strips have demonstrated, he can be made even more so (cartooniness is a recurrent theme in Bill Griffith’s world).

Then there’s the segregation theme, with realistic cartoon characters mostly taking the position that realistics and cartoonies shouldn’t mix in any way: stick / keep to your own kind! (Note the meta move of having cartoon characters espouse beliefs and attitudes about cartoon characters.) With the predictable tragedy of prejudice against mixed couples, joined by bonds of affection, sexual relationship, or matrimony.

Background: Dallis strips. From my 10/19/13 posting “In the comics world”, see the section on Nick Dallis strips.

Background: against exogamy and “mixing” in general. The exhortation to endogamy — to staying within your own clan, class, caste, ethnic group, religion, race, or other social group — was famously joined to the formulaic expression Stick / Keep to your own kind! in the song “A Boy Like That” from the musical West Side Story, which begins with Anita singing to Maria:

A boy like that
Who’d kill your brother
Forget that boy
And find another
One of your own kind
Stick to your own kind

A boy like that
Will give you sorrow
You’ll meet another boy tomorrow
One of your own kind
Stick to your own kind

You can watch the performance of the song in the 1961 film here (#2).

(The history of the formula isn’t important to my discussion here, but still I’m curious; I’ve inquired about it on the ADS mailing list, and hope to be able to report some responses as comments on this posting.)

Cartoonies as an underclass. The cartoon draws out an analogy between “inferior” races/ethnicities/classes in the US and cartoonishness in the comics. Realistics call for segregation, demanding that cartoonies be kept in their inferior places (literal places, locales, where they live; and figurative places, statuses, where they rank socially). They call for segregation and oppression.

But the story ever has been that attachments form even on the most barren and hostile ground. In particular, women realistics occasionally fall in love with male cartoonies, as in panel 3 — maybe not with Popeye, Homer Simpson, or Fred Flintstone, but with, say, Dudley Do-Right:

(#3) DD-R: flagrantly cartoony, and not very bright, but earnest and cheerful

While Griffith’s cartoon treats these matters with a light and mocking touch, I take him to be offering the analogy in urgent seriousness, as a highly compressed moral lesson in comic form. Good for him.

This entry was posted on September 15, 2019 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Comic conventions, Formulaic language, Linguistics in the comics, Music, Race and ethnicity, Social class, Social life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.