Cooperation

Cartooning is of its very nature a cooperative effort between the creator of the strip or book and the reader/viewer. As in all communications, they use the conventions of their shared humanity. To be able to use effectively the "dictionary" of human behaviors, which begins to be assembled from childhood, the creator should read extensively, particularly short stories, and observe closely.

Some gestures and postures are culturally specific, but a surprising number are universal, particularly in the modern, technological age. The final position of a given gesture is usually definitive, but with postures, the artist must choose that moment in a continuum of motion that epitomizes what s/he intends. Control is then turned over to the reader/viewer who, from his or her own experience in interpreting gestures and postures, fills in what has come before the frozen moment and what logically follows.

The reader/viewer...