The "Com(m)" in Comics

Artists (sender) of comic strips employs the use of visual art (channel) to convey messages, usually something funny, to the readers (receivers). Speech, in terms of simple phrases, are added to emphasize a punchline. This being the case, whatever images, especially the characters, have to be meticulously drawn to depict the facial expressions to display emotions, as well as to set the tonality of the character. Due to the fairly simple, almost sketch-like nature of the images, to ensure that the majority of the readers decode the message as implied, universal emotions are usually used. This also means the artists are forced to conform to the perception of most readers.

Shown above is comic strip "Working Daze", titled, "Geek True Love".
As the saying goes: "A picture paints a thousand words." Merely the use of the word "geek" in the title is insufficient to convince the readers that the characters involved are geeks, the characters drawn do not fulfil the social construct in the minds of the readers.
In the above example, the artists have painted a bald chubby man with glasses and a similarly chubby bespectacled woman with her hair done in 2 ponytails, which fits the classic mental picture that our cognitive schemata paints.

Reading the comic strip, the first thing that struck me was that someone's in love. This can be attributed to the use of symbolic "red hearts", the universal symbol of love. Also, the artist complemented that with a facial expression seemingly of someone being mesmerized. To complete the picture, a somewhat colorful background of a rainbow and fluffy clouds are used in the backdrop to bring forth the idea of bliss. This is, of course, due to the cognitive scripts we have already written in our minds.

"I love you just as much as my 'Action Comics #1' in mint condition!"
Geeks are stereotyped as people who love differently from the rest of the world with just a single sweeping punchline. It is apparent that the artist understands the social construct of the interaction between the opposite gender very well to deploy such a punchline, knowing that a normal lady would turn down such a come-on from a gentleman (maybe even term him a loser or simply give him a slap for placing her on the same ranks as a comic).

Generally, if you so much as smile slightly upon reading the comic strip, you've gotten the gist of it by interpreted it the way that the artists intended their readers to. To end this week's entry, I shall leave you with a few comic strips I stumbled upon. Have fun interpreting ;)

A little comic relief...