Who gets to talk?

When I sit back and think about the world that the kids of Able To Play live in, the first thing I decide is that anything can go. Strange things can happen even if they shouldn’t be possible. After it’s a comic and reality should be bent beyond our own.

But I realize there should be some rules that our followed so there is consistency. For one I don’t know adults seen in the comic. They have no place in the crazy adventures of children. But they are “there”. Parents look after us after all, provide a certain amount of guidance and wisdom (whether we want it or not). But they are for the most part in this comic world of mine… background.

My comic two weeks ago, Fred has a simple conversation with his mother about a show he just finished watching. I liked the idea of mom pointing out that his favorite show about a butt kicking ninja monkey was actually educational and he didn’t even know it. Looking back though I wonder if mom’s comments should have been heard. The focus is on the character of the kids and how they grow and have adventures and what not (while trying to continue the gag a day feel). Should any comments made by adults be kept quite so that we only see the kids side of it? Charles Shultz view that adults just couldn’t be understood was a fun one. You view of Charlie Brown and his buddies was locked in on them and only them. Often it seemed like they were the once running the whole show.

From a kid stand point of running around playing and having adventures – it is there show they are running. So why not keep the parents views out of the mix? My next comic I’m going to have Stan and Benny’s mother keep quite. We will see Stan’s response we should be able to guess what was said by the adult and see how that goes.

Though in the end, when you are trying to run a comic that is meant to be simple so that most people (adults and kids alike) can understand it with ease. Do such thoughts matter? Maybe one should just let the situation flow on its own and just do what seems natural compared to keeping to any set rule… In other words, let the comic write itself to a certain degree - find its own rules.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this.

--Drew