Communication of Lines to Indicates the Goodness and Badness of Selected Cartoon Characters

Abstract

The study samples herein are good and evil characters chosen from 5 comic books from 4 different countries of origin; Thailand, Japan, France and USA. The drawing of each character is deconstructed to investigate the sign and the characteristic of lines used in character design. The deconstruction of the line drawing and the text narration are analyzed by researcher to investigate the myth behind the comic from each country in order to understand the background of the myth in the Context of the comic and the culture in which it is created.

The result shows that in Thai, Japanese and French comics, lines and Stereotyping are used similarly to convey the meaning: good characters are drawn with curved lines while evil characters are mostly drawn with straight, vertical and angled lines. And good characters are also drawn smaller than evil characters. While the narratives affecting the characters are different since each comic has a different target group and cultural Context which affects how the meaning of the comic is conveyed.