One of the most fascinating and quirky documents covering comic languages is The Lexicon of Comicana by Mort Walker. The creator of Beetle Bailey has compiled a study of what he calls “tetology,” the way cartoon expressions express emotions and other cartoon words. It is mostly something we almost unconsciously absorbed:
“TeTeology” is just one of the vast terms that Walker created to catalog the effects of books’ comics published in 1980 as something like a humorous takeoff in a guidebook. And a new edition is ongoing from the New York Review Book.
For Mort Walker, creator of the iconic beetle Bailey, the language of cartoons is universal. It can be found in our road signs and user manuals. It’s hidden behind our mischievous expressions, our japes and grips, our puns and jokes. Comicana’s dictionary is his mudcap attempt to catalogue a colorful, miscellaneous cartoon system, from the types of speech bubbles (“humetti”) to the shape of the body (“morph”), up to the permells of fierce brawls or Permerline, which surrounds the back of the sprinter (“bluigit”). A guide to identifying comic stereotypes (trump by his bindle, a rich man with his ship hat and wand), a catalogue of Trite and Trite again (deert island, claw bed, psychiatrist and his couch), and a guide to “Maradicta”, a guide to “Maradicta”, a guide to “Maradicta”, a guide to “Jusprint”, a guide to “Nittles” and “Glorix”.
The new edition was released in Chrisware’s preface on September 30th and edited by Mort’s son Brian Walker.
Walker’s ratios and visual shorthand lists may not be fully compatible with modern standards, but some of these stereotypes are very outdated, with others speaking to the medieval Mundanitis, where we are far more removed.
“The Comicana Lexicon is a classic that belongs to all cartoonists’ shelves!” – Raina Telgemeier
“Walker wrote something amazingly surprising and unpretentious, unpretentious, big deal to begin defining comics as their own native language when other cartoonists and even real people thought that way.” – Chrisware (from the introduction)
“In this groundbreaking book, Mortwalker provided a vocabulary to explain the essence of cartoon art that allows readers to analyze how his art forms work.” – Lucy Shelton Caswell, founding curator of the Billy Irish Comic Library & Museum, Ohio State University.
Scrolling through the review copy, I was impressed by the fact that of these examples of classic comics, young cartoonists still use them. You can find it in Webtoons, Kids Comics, or even in some way. Truly, these are part of our shared understanding of photography as storytelling of human emotions.
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