Talking about the special communicative power of the cartoon on Comics Are Great!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8PsQi99nok

Anthropomorphic comics characters have enjoyed a wide appeal almost since the invention of the comic. Who doesn’t love Snoopy? Characters like Garfield have inspired an entire generation of professional cartoonists. Even the critically-acclaimed Maus featured talking animal characters.

So what is it about “animals doing people things” that’s so compelling? Why are we so willing to invest in a character whose design is so defiantly absurd and unrealistic?

I’m joined by John Green , co-creator of the Teen Boat! graphic novels and creator of the upcoming Hippopotamister, published by First Second Books. Together we unlock the secret powers held within “funny animal characters.”

We’re also joined by Anne Drozd of the Ann Arbor District Library for another round of book recommendations!

Links mentioned in this episode (thanks to Eric Klooster for collecting the links!):

• The OTHER John Green
• Teen Boat!
• Superhero Tropes
• Dave Roman
• Turbo Teen
• Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden
• An exclusive preview of Hippopotamister
• John’s post on why animals make great protagonists
• The new Lightsabers
• Justice League: Comfort and Joy
• Watership Down (film)
• Maus
• Real-Life Simpsons
• Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham
• The AADL “Unusual Stuff” section

Book Recommendations:

• Ariol
• The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil
• nemu*nemu
• Missile Mouse
• The Incredible Change-Bots
• PIX: One Weirdest Weekend

Live streams every other Wednesday at Comicsaregreat.tv and on Google+!

Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing.

This episode was recorded live at the Ann Arbor District Library.

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