Strip Search: My Comic Does Not Equal My Life
Jennifer M. Babcock reviews and recommends comic strips available in print and on the web.
Well, I’m back from Egypt. It was such a wonderful trip and I have a lot more to say about Ancient Egyptian narrative vis a vis comics but I want to wait for another time- like when I get my dissertation proposal passed and when I’m less jet lagged.
Anyway, instead of writing a blog that requires too much thinking and analysis I’m going to talk about all the weird questions and comments I get from my friends and family about my comic, “C’est la Vie.”
I’m not sure if other creators feel the same way as I do but I get really uncomfortable when family and friends talk to me about my comic. I think it’s because they like to read into my characters and my storylines to actively try to find parallels in my real life. For instance, sometimes a friend/family member will ask me “Is so-and-so based on you? Is (s)he based on this other person?”
Or: “Was that storyline about that one birthday party you had when you had too much bourbon and threw up in your stilettos and your boss had to clean the puke out of your shoes as you hugged the toilet?”
OK, just because I write about one of my characters getting piss drunk does not mean that it was about THAT TIME (specifically). While it is true that there are some events in my comic that are based on my own experiences, they are usually twisted in some sort of way to make them pretty unrelated to my own life and hopefully more interesting. Indeed the best slice of life fiction is the kind that is realistic AND entertaining (which also usually means more exaggerated and highly edited).
The most annoying part about these assumptions about my comic and its relationship to my life is that I often feel that I have to worry what my friends and family are going to think about me if I do a crazy storyline- in fact, sometimes I’ll even scratch the idea all together if I think it’s going to become a big issue with other people. I know this is something I’ll probably just have to get over but I don’t want people to think that just because I write about one of my main character having a secret desire to be a “boy whipping dominatrix with a foot fetish website” doesn’t mean that I want to be one… (or DO I??? I bet it pays more than being a cartoonist or an Egyptologist…)
I get a lot of questions from fans about how the strip and its characters parallel with my life and for some reason it doesn’t bother me as much as when my family and friends do it- maybe it just hits too close to home or maybe it’s because I don’t mind whatever crazy fantasy readers build in their minds. When family and friends start probing through my inner psyche through my creative outlet, however, that feels more like a breach of personal space. It would be like rummaging through your underwear drawer, sniffing your panties, and trying to figure out what detergent you use.
Ok, maybe I’m too sensitive about this but it creeps me out!
As for trying to figure out if any one character from a comic is based on the creator’s personality, here’s a general rule of thumb: every character someone creates is probably going to have a little piece of them in there. If you want to get biblical about this, think of it this way: Even God created Adam in His image.
Jennifer M. Babcock holds her MA in art history and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Egyptology from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, where she is also known as a comics scholar. A creator herself, she is the artist and writer behind C’est La Vie, which is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate and available at http://www.gocomics.com/cestlavie.
I don’t get those questions much — maybe because my main character is a woman and I’m not.
But it seems like, with my wedding coming up, friends and family do wonder whenever I make wedding-related jokes in the strip — am I getting cold feet? are we fighting about flower arrangements? Is everything okay?
Mostly I just shrug it off and write whatever I think is funny.
People are always looking for easy answers for creativity.
They want to be able to think they could “make stuff up” if all they had to do was cannibalize their own lives and they would NEVER do that so they’ll have to remain unfulfilled as artists but feel morally superior to those that are willing to sell out their personal experiences.
I’m not sure if I really believe that what I just wrote is universal but there is an element of truth, perhaps.
I’d probably look at it a little more charitably, and say that people who aren’t in the habit of being creative just don’t get it. They don’t really understand how much the “what if?” factor contributes to a creative work.
I suppose some probably do see it in terms of some kind of moral superiority, but for the most part that really hasn’t been my own experience.
It hasn’t really been mine either, Josh. I still think that those who don’t “use it” want to believe they could adn that there’s a simple formula for making “it” happen. For the most part, they’re right, but it has nothing to do with formulas.
I guess I feel that most people really don’t give it enough thought to have any kind of belief about it. If a story seems at all true to life, they take for granted that the author writes from personal experience and don’t think beyond that.
That’s my sense of it, anyway.
Good post Jen! If people actually knew you, they could easily see you may share characteristics with your characters but you are very different as well. On the other hand you do love bunnies and can be a little obsessed with female hygiene, and whenever that shows up in your comic I think to myself “that is so Jen.” Last time I checked you were not a skinny guy with huge ears that dresses up in a huge plush suit to read to kids.